CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | KLAUS

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RILEY GENUINELY COULD NOT REMEMBER THE LAST TIME SHE HAD GOTTEN A PROPER NIGHTS SLEEP. Ever since the news of the sacrifice, and everything in between, the strawberry-blonde had been having trouble sleeping. Riley rolled over and gazed at her alarm clock and with a heavy sigh, she decided to peel herself from her bed to make a coffee.

As Riley sauntered down the staircase, gently rubbing her eyes as she walked, she was startled by Elijah. The Original vampire from their basement, who sped past her and stood at the threshold of the house. The strawberry-blonde halted, her eyes widened as Elena sprinted up from the basement.

"Elena?" Riley's gaze flickered between the Original, whose hands were pressed against the wooden door frame, and the guilty-looking doppelganger. What the hell is going—"

"Shh!" Elena placed her index finger up against her lips as she told Riley to be quiet. She then pointed upstairs, indicting that Stefan and Damon would surely be able to hear if they spoke any louder.

Elijah attempted to enter back inside the Salvatore house but was stopped at the threshold. Elena had not invited him inside. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you, but not here." The doppelganger mumbled, then she looked at Riley. "I can fix this. I can fix everything." Her attention was once again placed on Elijah. "Can I trust you?"

Elijah tilted his head with a raised eyebrow. He knew that he would be foolish to place his trust within the hands of Elena Gilbert once more. "Can I trust you?"

Hesitantly, Elena handed Elijah the silver dagger that was once plunged into his heart and rendered him dead. She knew that handing Elijah the dagger would prove she was placing her trust within him.

"I need to find out what he knows about Klaus. And, everything. There must be a way to avoid this— Bonnie dying to save us." Elena told the witch, who slowly nodded.

"Okay. Then, he can tell both of us." Riley's attention turned to Elijah, whose eyes were firmly placed on her.

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Elijah took the girls to the Lockwood Estate and compelled Carol to gather him a fresh suit, considering his one was burnt to a crisp. Riley looked at the Original with a concerned face but she knew that Elijah would not hurt either of them. All the pair of females really wanted was answers.

"So, I assume the Martin witches are no longer with us," Elijah raised the question as he sat on a chair in one of the many rooms of the Lockwood house.

"No, sadly, they aren't." Riley's eyes fell onto the floor as she remembered back to the needless deaths of Jonas and Luka Martin.

Elijah slowly nodded, almost as if he had anticipated that they would have been dead. "And Katerina? She would have been released from my compulsion when I died."

"Klaus took her," Elena explained with a sympathetic tone of voice. "We think that she may be dead."

"I doubt that. Not Klaus' style." The suited Original simply answered with a slight smirk on his face. "Death would be too easy for her after what she did."

"Wait, I'm confused. You've told us that you want Klaus dead, and yet you still make Katherine pay for betraying Klaus." Curiosity spread across the Evans witch's face. "Why?"

"I have my own reasons for wanting Katerina to pay. There was a time— I'd have done anything for Klaus." Elijah slowly trailed off as if he were deep in thought, then he glanced back to the girls. "I'd have done anything for him because Klaus is my brother."

"Wait. What?" Elena's eyes widened as she and Riley seemed completely lost for words at the possibility that Elijah was related to Klaus.

"Yes. I'm a little behind on the times, but I believe the term you're both searching for is OMG." The Original simply responded as he sipped his tea with a short smile.

"So, wait a minute. There's an entire family of people like you— Originals?" The little witch cleared her throat once Elijah lifted himself up from the couch.

"My father was a wealthy landowner in a village in Eastern Europe. Our mother bore seven children." Elijah's eyes were completely fixed on his reflection, then he turned back around to face Elena and Riley, who had gotten to their feet.

"So, your parents were human?" The doppelganger asked.

"Our whole family was. Our origin as vampires is a very long story. Just know, we're the oldest vampire's in the world. We are the Original Family and from us, all vampires were created."

"Yes, but Klaus is your brother. What I'm failing to understand is why you would want your own flesh and blood dead." The strawberry-blonde witch raised an eyebrow with a tilted head.

"I need some air." Elijah's gaze shot from her to the outdoor area. "I'm still feeling a tad— dead. Come." Elena and Riley exchanged baffled looks as they followed Elijah outside onto the Lockwood Estate. The fresh air seemed to make the Original vampire want to open up more. "So, as you've seen, nothing can kill an Original. Not sun, not fire, not even a werewolf bite. Only the wood from one tree— a tree my family made sure burned."

"That's where the white ash for the dagger comes from." Elena continued as she and Riley trailed behind the suited vampire.

"Yes. The witches won't allow anything truly immortal to walk the Earth. Every creature needs to have a weakness in order to maintain the balance."

"If the sun can't kill an Original, then why is Klaus set on breaking the sun and the moon curse? What does he gain from that if the sun can't harm him?" Riley questioned as she walked closer beside Elijah, as a flicker of a smirk appeared on his face.

"Right. The curse of the Sun and The Moon. It's all so— biblical-sounding, don't you think?" Elijah paused in his tracks and eyed up the strawberry-blonde.

"I—I don't understand," Elena called out from behind as the two continued their silent eye contact.

"Klaus drew sketches. He was quite obsessed with them. I'm sure you can guess what those sketches were of."

Elena's eyes widened. "Klaus drew the Aztec sketches about the curse?"

"Roman scrolls, African tribal etchings, and any other culture or continent we felt like planting in it." A sadistic smirk appeared on Elijah's face as he watched the girls' confusion.

"Why though?" Riley questioned again. "I don't understand."

"My dear, Riley. The easiest way to discover the existence of a doppelganger, an Evans witch, or to get your hands on some long, lost moonstone is to have every single member of two warring species on the lookout for it." Elijah explained to the girls with a sure smirk on his face.

The doppelganger moved her folded arms down to her hips, "So, it's not Aztec at all?"

"The curse of The Sun and The Moon— is fake." He revealed as both girls' eyes widened. "It doesn't exist. Klaus and I faked The Sun and The Moon curse dating back over a thousand years."

A scoff of disbelief followed after Elijah. "So, if there's no curse, then why all this drama?"

"There's a curse. Just not that one. The real one's much worse. It's a curse placed on Klaus."

"What are you talking about?" Elena flapped her arms around in confusion whilst her phone began to vibrate in Elijah's inner-jacket pocket.

"Klaus has been trying to break it for the last thousand years, and you were his only hope."

"Well, what is this curse?"

Instead of giving an answer, Elijah simply plunged his hand into his inside pocket and pulled out the Gilbert girl's phone. "Your phone will not stop its incessant buzzing. Answer it, please."

Riley watched Elena take her phone from Elijah's grip as she placed it up to her ears. "Stefan, What's wrong?" Worry began to show all over her face. "No. No, no, no. I— Okay, I'll be right there."

Once Elena ended the call, Riley raised an eyebrow toward her best friend. "Elena, what's happened?"

"Klaus went after Jenna. I have to go to her."

Elijah's face suddenly turned to stone at the mention of Elena leaving. "I'm afraid that wasn't part of today's arrangement."

"Elijah, I'll stay and talk." Riley nodded in the Original vampire's direction, a pointed look on her face as she nodded. "I have a few questions of my own."

"I'll be back. You have my word." Elena swore just before she gave Riley an appreciative smile and she darted off in the direction of her car.

"So, Miss. Evans," Elijah spoke up, a short smile on his face as he and Riley headed back towards the house. "What is it that you would like to know?"

"I want to know what the point of all of this is." Riley immediately asked as she plunged her hands into her jacket pocket. "Damon told me that Klaus needed my blood— the blood of an Evans witch to break the curse. Why?"

"You come from a very long line of powerful witches, though I'm sure once you heard about your part to play within the sacrifice, you have done some research, didn't you?" Elijah raised an eyebrow.

"Mm." Riley nodded slowly. "Personally, I didn't know what to believe. I saw the firstborn of every generation of Evans' witches has a duty to nature. Their blood— it's one of the most powerful things imaginable. There was a curse placed on my bloodline, by a shaman? But, whether all that is true or not, I don't know."

Elijah blinked, almost impressed by the research Riley had dedicated herself to. "Indeed it is. I believe one of your ancestors double-crossed a shaman, so he placed a curse on your family. Witch politics is incredibly dramatic. But, nevertheless, a firstborn Evans witch's blood in addition to the sacrifice of the doppelganger is the key to breaking Klaus' curse."

As the two wandered inside the Lockwood Estate, Riley raised an eyebrow toward Elijah. "But, if that's the case, why didn't Rose and Trevor try and hand me over to you when they kidnapped Elena?"

"Your involvement is not common knowledge. Only Klaus and I know the true details. It's a little safer that way. A doppelganger is a reoccurrence of nature, but a first-born Evans witch can be little harder to come by."

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Shortly after Riley had managed to get her head around her involvement in breaking whatever curse was placed on Klaus, the door swung open once more to reveal Elena. "Welcome back." Elijah greeted.

"How's Jenna?" Riley's gaze turned to her best friend, but judging by the look on Elena's face, Riley knew it was not good.

"She's confused. Shocked." Elena scoffed whilst she pulled her jacket from her arms and turned her gaze to Elijah. "Tell me, what is Klaus' curse?"

"You know, my family was quite close. But, Klaus and my father did not get on too well. When we become vampires, we discovered the truth— Klaus was not my father's son." Elijah explained. "My mother had been unfaithful many years before. This was her darkest secret."

"So, Klaus is from a different bloodline." Riley continued as the Original stopped to take a breath.

"Of course, when my father discovered this he hunted down, and he killed my mother's lover and his entire family. Not realizing, of course, that he was igniting a war between species that rages until this day."

"A war between the species?" Elena raised an eyebrow with confusion on her face.

The Original nodded. "The vampires and the werewolves."

"So, Klaus' real father was from a werewolf bloodline? What does that make Klaus? A werewolf or a vampire?"

"No." The strawberry-blonde scoffed as a look of disbelief grew on her face. "No way. That's impossible. He can't be, can he?"

"He's both. A Hybrid would be deadlier than any werewolf or vampire. Nature would not stand for such an imbalance of power. Therefore the witches, the servants of nature, saw to it that my brother's werewolf side would become dormant."

"I get it now. That's the curse, isn't it?"

"He wants to trigger that part of him that's a werewolf. If allowed, Klaus would sire his own bloodline. He'd build his own race. Endangering not just vampires, but everyone." Elijah explained to the two girls who stood up to their feet.

"But you helped him." Elena tilted her head.

"I helped him because I loved him." Elijah shook his head. "That's changed, now he must die. But, when a werewolf is wounded by silver, it heals. An Original can't be killed by anything by white oak ash on a silver dagger. So, you both see the conundrum? The dagger does not work."

Elena folded her arms over her chest as she chuckled softly. "What are you saying? That Klaus can't be killed?"

"There's one way to kill any supernatural species. At the hands of the servants of nature themselves."

"A witch." Riley nodded to herself. "They can channel enough power that could kill him— but it would also kill them."

"The curse must be broken during the full moon. When Klaus is in transition, that's when he'll be at his most vulnerable. A witch with enough power can kill Klaus."

"What if we knew a witch that could channel that much power?" Riley spoke up once she and Elena exchanged pointed looks.

"Then I would tell you there's one more thing you should know." Elijah simply replied. "I found a way to save the doppelganger's life. Unfortunately, Katerina took matters into her own hands first." Elijah grabbed Elena's jacket and handed it to her. "I believe you already know how that played out."

Riley tilted her head and fixed her gaze to the Original, whose face fell at the mention of Katherine. "You cared about Katherine, didn't you?"

"It's a common mistake, I'm told. It's one I won't make again."

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