Written 2013 by VeGirl

The next day Klaus took us down to this old town; perhaps he thought we wanted to go shopping, but I had none of Anna's endurance when it came to that subject, and ended up sitting outside in a chair in one of the open air café, sipping soda and nibbling on a delicious German pretzel, while Anna was still looking for the perfect outfit.

I sat there looking around at the old buildings surrounding me when Klaus plopped down on the chair next to mine. "How much clothes does this girl need?"

I laughed. "I have no idea." I kept my gaze on him; I liked the easy, carefree air around him. He didn't look like he had some diabolical plan he needed to sort out, even though he probably did.

"This is a beautiful town; do you have a lot of hiding-places like this around the world?" I asked casually.

He looked surprised and then he laughed, brightening his features up. "Yes I do, and if you tell anybody about them, I'll make you forget."

"Of course you will," I said ascertained. "Hey, you have stopped saying that you'd kill me, which must be a good thing, right?" I teased him.

"Well, you have stopped calling me Clauws," he teased back and we both sat back in our chairs looking at people strolling by.

"It really is a beautiful town. I'm guessing it didn't look like this the last time you were here?"

He chuckled that charming Klaus way. "No, they didn't have Mac Donald's then."

I chortled and shook my head with a smile.

"But the church was built last time I was here," he revealed and my eyes sought the huge gothic building while he told a few historic facts about the town.

* * * * *

When we got back to Klaus' mansion, I noted he had a tense way he didn't have earlier. He stopped us from getting out of the car and hushed us to use his vampire hearing.

Something was wrong.

He almost held us behind his back when we walked inside the house; in the parlour sat the object of his wariness; his mother.

Wide-eyes I watched the mother who wanted to kill her own children, and any vampires sired by them.

Ester was intimidating in a silent way; she was kind and graceful but beyond that, there was something dark and sinister. At first I thought it was due to all the stories I had heard, but there was more.

"Annora..." she breathed.

Anna looked confused at Ester.

"Mother," Klaus said. "I thought this was as far away from you as possible."

"Of course I had to see you, my son," she said in a detached polite way that made my skin crawl. "And I needed to come see this girl of yours." She walked up to us, reaching her hand to Anna, totally ignoring me. "Hello, I'm Ester, Klaus' mother." She introduced herself with a smile on her face that didn't reach her eyes.

"I'm Anna; not Annora." My friend looked a bit hesitant in shaking this woman's hand, but did eventually.

Ester looked like she had a lot she wanted to discuss with my friend, but Anna's phone interrupted and she excused herself and walked away to get the call.

"What do you want mother?" Klaus had no trace of politeness in his voice and I retreated from the room; the feeling that I shouldn't be there was strong and I gladly obeyed. When I got out on the patio, I found a confused Anna standing there.

"What is it?"

"That was my mother calling, asking if the flight went well, and if the hotel was nice. I had to think really hard before I got that she thought we just arrived in Covington."

We shared a puzzled look.

"That happened to me when I was in Mystic Falls alone." I exclaimed. "What is going on?"

* * * * *

That night I had just got out from the shower and walked into my room in a towel when Klaus appeared from thin air, scaring the crap out of me.

"You need to pack your bags now. We leave within the hour," he hissed and then swept out of the room again.

I nearly needed a CPR to get my heart back on tracks again when Anna stormed into the room.

"Klaus says we're leaving," she hissed.

"Yeah, I got the message, thank you," I said sourly, but wondered what had happened.

Anna stormed out of the room and I quickly scurried into a fresh set of clothes; grateful that Klaus had arranged for someone to clean our clothes. I quickly collected the stuff I had spread out in the room during this week while I pondered about what made this departure feel like an escape.

In less than half an hour we were packed in the car again and silently rolled out on the narrow road, through the gate and left this charming town behind.

"This has something to do with your mother?" I had figured it out.

He snapped his attention in my direction with guarded eyes, and then he sighed. "Yes."

"It's due to Anna and Annora, and something to make vampires human again, am I right?"

His guard was up and he didn't even confirm that I hit the nail. "I can't let mother near Anna."

"What can she do?" Anna asked. "No wait, don't answer that," she added, certain that the answer had something to do with death.

"Listen to me; I've been alive a bit longer than you... and dead a lot longer than that." It might have been his tone that made me wrinkle my eyebrows and really listen to him. "I've seen things you couldn't imagine; and you're just gonna have to trust me on this one."

Trust Klaus? Could I trust him with my own and my friends life once again; and more important, what choice did I have?

Once again we were sweeping through the dark night with an ominous feeling in our chest. I didn't know where we were heading, barely even where we were, but I knew better than to ask for directions. I just missed the company of his sweet sister.

"What does she want with me?" Anna asked with a shaky voice.

"Apparently you are the one that can make us human again."

"I don't want to be the one," Anna pouted.

"I don't want to be this good looking and athletic; we all have crosses to bear."

I wanted to laugh at his joke, but it got stuck in my throat, unable to lighten my mood. I kept my gaze out of the window on the dark spooky scenery sweeping by. My head hurt a bit from all the possible threats we needed to dodge. Eventually my eyes got tired and didn't find anything to focus on; soon sleep swept over me like a security blanket.

When I came to, the sun was already up and soft voices surrounded me.

"Good morning sleepy head," Anna said in her perky way. I ignored her and looked around to find us waiting in line in what I recognized as a borderline; we had passed a few of those.

"Where are we?"

"We're just leaving Croatia,"!Klaus informed.

"We're going to Italy," Anna bubbled excited.

"Why?"

"I have something I need to pick up."

"Steal?"

"No!" He glared at me, but soon that glare turned into a smug grin. "I stole it years ago, now I just need to pick it up."

I rolled my eyes. How many countries had we really been rushing through? I regretted that I hadn't appreciated it more, thinking how Anna and I had made plans to backpack across Europe. This could have been another dream come true, if there hadn't been the minor detail of us running for our life.

I didn't really get what country we stopped for lunch in; it felt like the road-trips I had been on with my family as a kid, the main difference was that on those trips in Sweden, I used to ask what towns we were in, not what country we were driving through. This was just a change of perspective.

Before nightfall we crossed the last border and entered Italy. Anna and I started to talk about where we should stay, and got really excited when we saw signs showing the way to Venice.

"You seem to forget that this isn't some vacation road trip." Klaus looked hard-set. "We're here to pick something up, and then we'll be on our way to The States."

My stomach was filled with butterflies in an instant. Could it finally be time to get back?

This time Klaus didn't book us in some small inconspicuous hotel, but a luxurious suite in one of the best hotels in another town I couldn't remember the name of. We were all tired, but it was obvious that something was going on here, because Klaus was on the phone almost constantly.

The night we arrived though, Klaus took us out, he had clothes delivered to our suite, and he had a table for three reserved in a top restaurant. The food was delicious and the ambiance was fabulous. I couldn't help but to feel suspicious, though; when had Klaus done anything that wasn't only for his own personal gain?

When we got back to the hotel after this fantastic evening, I almost expected to have to sleep with him or something. To my relief he just wished us a good night and then he walked to his bedroom, and let me and Anna share the other one. In our exhaustion, both Anna and I slept like babies and life felt different when we woke up the next morning.

Klaus had ordered us breakfast up to the suite and I relished in sitting there in a thick white robe, tasting all the different delicates'. The café latte was huge and the biscotti's were delicious; there were brioche, fruit salad and yoghurt and both Anna and I just ate and ate. I'm not sure what Klaus had for breakfast more than coffee, he was really discrete, and I didn't want to search the newspapers for any casual deaths, due to animal attacks. As long as we were dining and living in this beautiful town, I intended to ignore the fact that he was on a liquid diet.

Klaus wasn't comfortable to leave us alone in the hotel, so we tagged along like good dogs on a short leash.

It looked like some excavation site when we arrived at his secret destination. Several people were engaged in digging something up and apparently we got there just in time for Klaus to get his hands on an old sword. His eyes glistened in a way that made me think of revenge, and I wondered who this sword belonged to.

I had the bad idea to glance down the hole from where they lifted the weapon, and saw the bones of the previous owner. I shuddered and wondered why Klaus wanted this sword and what part he had in putting the man in the ground in the first place. I decided that I didn't want to know and I heard Klaus order his associates to cover up the grave again, before he ordered Anna and me to come with him.

We got to a hotel where he sat down by a table to study the intricate pattern on the smithery. I watched him take pictures with his phone and flip through pictures there until he looked up at me with an expression that can only be described as 'Mind your own business'.

"Sorry," I mumbled and looked away.

Amariya joined us in a restaurant nearby and it was good to have her back. Yonah had stayed behind at the Mansion to keep their mother busy and I wondered how Amariya had been able to sneak away.

The siblings discussed the sword and I deduced that the sword had belonged to some hunter way back when. That hunter, I found out, had apparently betrayed them by using Rebekah, and I wondered how they had been for so long ago. Had Rebekah been vindictive already then, or was it perhaps the man which bones I had seen who made her the one she was today?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hello my lovely readers!

I'm glad that you're still interested in this story and grateful that you have given me so much encouragement to make me continue this story. It's always interesting to hear what you think about this story, what you think will happen or pretty much anything. ;-D

Thank you for being patient with me when my ideas for Emma just ran out, but now she's back!

Love, VeGirl

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