THE Mikaelson couple was making out on the couch in the parlor when Damon walked in the house without an invitation. He groaned in disgust at the sight and grimaced, covering his eyes dramatically. "Hello?!"

Ingrid pulled away from Klaus with a displeased expression and took a slow, deep breath to calm herself. "Hello, Damon." She then sped toward him and grabbed his face with her hand, crushing his jaw with her strength.

He groaned in pain and reset his jaw, glaring harshly in her direction. "Not the greeting I was expecting."

"No... but that was the least you deserved." She sneered at him then remembered what she ordered Elena to do the day prior. "How's Elena?"

"Well, I'm assuming you ordered her to break up with me and tell me she never loved me." He sneered at her with narrowed icy blue eyes before smirking triumphantly. "Didn't work though. I say right through it so good try."

Ingrid shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly before extending her fangs and attempting to bite him, injecting him with werewolf venom. However, Klaus called out to her. "Ingrid, darling!"

She reluctantly pulled away with a grumble and walked toward Klaus, glaring at him the whole time.

Klaus wiped the corner of his lip with the pad of his thumb while chuckling. "Ah, what an unpleasant surprise."

Damon strode into the parlor with a piece of paper in his hand. "So I just came up with a list." He remarked earning blank looks from the hyrbids. "It's called "Things You Both Suck At" He stopped in place and smirked bitterly at them. "Number one: Finding Katherine. Ever. Number two: covering up your secret phone conversations with that little backstabber Hayley." He waved the phone transcript in the air and Ingrid snatched them from him. "Yeah, so, where is she? What does she know about Katherine?" He questioned in a pushy manner.

"I should help you?" Klaus sneered in a furious tone and narrowed his eyes.

Damon nodded while pursing his lips. "Mhm."

"After you lot killed my brother and imprisoned me in the Gilbert living room?" He angrily asked the Salvatore, sitting back on the couch and smirking condescendingly.

Damon walked closer to them with a stressful face. "You might want to prioritize, Klaus. You have much bigger problems." He stated strongly and they looked at him blankly. "Katherine has the cure." Klaus looked displeased by this news and Ingrid remained unfazed. "My guess is she's gonna want to cram it down your throat. You help me find Katherine, I'll get the cure, I'll give it to Elena, everybody wins. Just let me question Hayley about Katherine."

Klaus smiled, stood up from his seat, and walked toward Damon. "Can't help you, mate. Hayley's off limits." He walked past Damon and stoppes at the fireplace. "Although, I did have a run in with a vampire who may know where Katerina is." Damon turned around and looked at him, hopeful. "Too bad for you, I bit halfway through his bloody neck. He probably won't have much time for chit-chat."

Damon glared angrily at him then spun on his heels and stormed out of the house. Ingrid rested her cheek against her fist and glanced at Klaus in annoyance. "We need to think about getting some new locks."

He chuckled warmly and say down next to her again, placing a hand on her thigh and rubbing the palm of his hand acoess it affectionately. "I still don't think that will deter them."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Hmm." She mused lowly and placed her hand on top of his. "You know what would deter them?"

"Hmm?" He leaned over and kissed her on the lips.

Ingrid melted into the embrace immediately and kissed back with a smile. "This." She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself into his lap. He smiled at her forwardness and rested his hands on either side of her hips.

Ingrid pulled away and held a finger up with a smirk causing him to look up at her in confusion and interest. She grabbed ahold of his hands and pulled him off the couch. He took her hand with a wide smile and allowed her to silently lead him up the marble stairs toward their bedroom. Then they reached their room, Ingrid pulled Klaus inside with a seductive smirk and closed the door behind him, locking it.

Hayley and Klaus were downstairs, sitting at a table across from each other while Ingrid was upstairs talking to Damon on the phone.

"What do you want now, Damon?" Ingrid questioned in an aggravated tone of voice.

"Elena turned her humanity off and she's out of control. We need you---" He began to explain in a stressed manner but was cut off.

"Need me to come order her to relax?" She finished for him with a raised eyebrow. "And what makes you think she will listen to me? Or that I would even want to help you in the first place?"

"Well, she's not listening to me." He remarked, oblivious to how the sire bond would work now. "And she's become a real pain in my ass."

"Yeah? Well, you are all a pain in my ass. At first it was more of an ache and now it's like a pest gnawing away at my sanity. The only thing that will help Elena is a slow, painful death." She snarled at him then paused for a second and got back to the topic at hand. "She turned her humanity off meaning no emotions. She does not fear me anymore." Ingrid replied with an eyebrow and sneered to herself. "She does not love you at the moment either. That is why she is not listening." She explained to him in a slow pace, hoping it would click in his brain. "The sire bond is useless at this moment. So... you're just going to have to figure it out for yourself." She commented, uninterested, and was about to hang up when he called out to her.

"Any word on the Katherine search?" Damon questioned curiously, hoping to put an end to the hunt for the cure.

"No and I have to be honest, I'm not actively looking." She informed him dully then shrugged her shoulders to herself. "Hayley is unwilling to provide information at the moment and I simply do not care." She mused lowly and hung up the phone before he could stop her again.

Hayley, pulling her foot up onto her chair, took a sip of wine while Klaus talked to her in tranquilly. "So, you're rested, you're fed. Tell me about Katerina."

"Most men get their power kick from torture and intimidation. With you, it's drinks and fine dining." The werewolf remarked in amusement.

Klaus smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, in your case, I favor hospitality over unpleasantness, but I have been known to change my mind on a whim." He said kindly then leaned forward in his chair and asked again. "Where is Katerina?"

Hayley scoffed and glanced at him incredulously. "You seriously think I know?"

"You tipped her off as to what we were up to and set her on a course to find the cure." Klaus assumed with an aggravated facial expression.

"Actually, that was me." Ingrid admitted as she walked passed the doorway.

He slowly turned around to face her with an enraged expression. "I'll deal with you later."

Ingrid snickered to herself and smirked sarcastically at him. "Okay."

He then turned back to Hayley with a displeased face. "So, she sent her lackey to snuff you out. Tell me, what did Katerina promise you?"

Hayley looked at him and paused for a moment before setting down her glass and readjusting in her seat, leaning forward. "I was in New Orleans trying to find information about my real parents. Katherine found me and told me she could help."

Klaus raised his eyebrows and nodded his head. "An orphan? Well, that does explain your charming bravado. Abandonment issues will do it every time."

"Sounds like you would know." Hayley replied instantly.

He smiled and leaned forward. "I'm the only one that can protect you. I'm happy to do so, provided you cooperate." He informed but Hayley didn't respond.

Hayley walked into another room with a drink in her hand and Klaus following behind her. He stopped in the doorway as she approached Klaus's paintings lying on tables or stand propped up on the ground. She then began to critique his art qork and pointed as she spoke. "Hate that." She aggressively flipped through the larger ones standing upright. "Too much. I don't get that."

Klaus walked further into the room, looking like he was about to say something but instead smiled bitterly and said nothing. Hayley started picking up smaller paintings and giving her unwanted opinions. "Hmm...I don't care." She mused and tossed it away. She noticed the painting of Ingrid and scoffed with an eye roll. "Creepy."

Klaus frowned deeply and narrowed his blue eyes into a glare. She didn't bother look at him and stopped at a certain painting. "Hmm. This one." She picked up a painting of a dark figure silhouetted by a fading sky, standing near a bare tree. She smiled, looking over her shoulder at Klaus. "It doesn't make me wanna puke." Klaus nodded sternly, looking down and Hayley put it back down. "Why'd you paint it?"

"Painting is a metaphor for control. Every choice is mine-- the canvas, the color." He explained and began to walk slowly closer to her. "As a child, I had neither a sense of the world nor my place in it, but art taught me that one's vision can be achieved with sheer force of will. The same is true of life, provided one refuses to let anything stand in one's way."

Hayley snorted slightly, smiling, and looked up at Klaus through hooded eyes as she talked, leaning in to speak near his ear as she passed him. "And you do whatever you enjoy..." she whispered suggestively then felt the eyes of Ingrid's portrait staring down at her and changed her tone. "Up to and including hunting my friend Tyler for the next century."

"Oh, surely not the next century." Klaus remarked with a dark smirk. "Only until I kill him." He then walked over to a table to poured himself a drink.

Hayley laughed while walking toward him.. "You talk a good game but the truth is you let him go. My guess: you know if you kill him, Caroline will hate you forever."

Klaus grimaced in disgust and turned to face her. "If I simply killed Tyler, my revenge would be over in a moment. Sentencing him to a lifetime of paranoia and fear-- that's Tyler's true punishment. But come now." He smirked, walking toward her. "You never really thought there was a future for you two, did you?"

She glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know. He might've left Caroline for me if I'd used the cure to kill you."

"You know, if Tyler has even half your resolve, he may actually make it through the year." He remarked while laughing.

Hayley sipped her drink and shook her head. "It doesn't take resolve. It takes allies, a network of people willing to do anything for you, including chase down loose ends to their death. That's how Katherine escaped you all this time."

Klaus walked even closer to her and pushed the subject further. "Perhaps you know the names of Katerina's special little helpers."

"Maybe I know one or two. Maybe I'll even tell you." She replied and knocked back the rest of her drink as Klaus smiled.

Klaus received a phone call and hung up his cell phone after the conversation was over. Hayley stood with a drink watching the fireplace and tuned to face him when he spoke up. "My sister informs me that your vampire assailant is dead, so you're safe and free to go."

Hayley nodded and paused after a moment. She looked up at him with a mischevious expression. "I could be persuaded to stay, enjoy some of the good life."

"No, I think you have overstayed your welcome." Ingrid remarked in a harsh tone and spared a glance at Klaus, who raised an eyebrow and was prepared to watch Hayley attempt to challenge her.

"And maybe I could drum up a few more of Katherine's secrets and you could do something for me." Hayley said, hoping to get his attention, and glared at Ingrid.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but you'll never convince me to let Tyler go free." He informed her in a stern manner, refusing to back down.

"Well, then, I guess I'll never get my chance with Tyler any more than you'll get a shot with Caroline." Hayley stated with a shrug, smiling to herself in victory.

"Are you dense?" Ingrid sneered in annoyance.

"Oh, I have no interest in Caroline." Klaus admitted proudly and smirked at the werewolf. "I have no intention of any relationship with Caroline and I don't care if she hates me forever for killing Tyler. Now, since you're refusing to cooperate and give me the information I asked for, you are free to leave." He said with an angry tone as Ingrid smirked at her and waved goodbye condescendingly.

Hayley slammed her glass down on the table and glared at them before walking toward the front door. Ingrid held the door open for her then slammed it shut after Hayley walked out onto the front steps.

Once she was gone, Klaus turned toward Ingrid with an unreadable expression. "You have some explaining to do, my love."

She raised an eyebrow with pursed lips and slowly nodded her head. "I feel as though it was self-explanatory. I told Katerina where they were and what they were doing. The only thing I wanted from her was Jeremy's death... and that was achieved."

"Did you take into account that she would steal the cure?" He snarled furiously at her.

"Yes." She answered immediately with a pointed expression. "I know there was a strong possibility that she would steal it. That's how she is. That's why I'm not surprised."

He took an angry step toward her and jeered. "Now she is nowhere to be found and I have no idea when she's coming."

"She will never get to you. She can't take on the both of us." She remarked in a careless manner, not worried about Katherine sneaking up on them. "Katerina would be dead before she could even try." She rolled her eyes at his angry glare and waved him off. "You can glare at me, yell at me, whatever, doesn't change anything."

"Do you know what this could have cost me? Cost us?" He questioned her, calming down slightly.

"Cost us? Nothing. It won't cost me anything because I want nothing to do with the cure." She remarked with a dull look then raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You? I imagine one of your diabolical schemes." She then walked toward him and placed a hand on his upper arm. "No matter what, I know you have a contingency plan. And... I think you'll live."

Tired of her mocking him, he sped her toward the wall with his hands on either side of her head. He glared down at her and trapped her body between his and the wall. She was caught of guard for a moment before glancing up at him with a wide smirk.

"Stop enjoying this." He snarled in frustration but she simply laughed while rolling her eyes.

"My apologies, my love, but your intimidation tactics do not work on me." Ingrid then attempted to push passed him and walk away but he grabbed her by the throat and pulled her back him before placing a passionate kiss on the lips. She immediately kissed back as he sped them toward the table, knocking everything off of it onto the floor. He aggressively ripped her shirt open and the small buttons crashed to the floor. He then climbed on top of her and reattached their lips.

---
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