chapter six, adam's creation

     THE MAN HELD WILL IN HIS STANCE. Looking stern, yet, so still, he looked at her. It didn't remind her of his gaze between the fires in the woods. It didn't hold the same fury for her. Instead, he looked as if he was plotting. As if one wrong move will send her back into the nightmares. But she wasn't afraid. Not when she knows already how lonely death can be.

     His azure eyes held an emotion behind them – disappointment. Not in her, but in himself. And she chose to stand still and immerse into the feeling around him. It wasn't the simple 'keep your friends close, but the enemies closer'. No, it was something along the lines of diving into deep, dark waters knowing that there is nothing in there but danger. There is always a reason why people are so attached to danger.

     Ophelia didn't know where she was, but the manor was empty – no furniture, nothing. It was abandoned, for years already, as it seemed. But the lingering of the previous warmth was still inside. It was the only thing that made her feel sane.

     "I told you to bring her, but you brought the entire family," he spoke up, his voice deep, sounding as if it belonged to the royalty itself.

     "I had no other choice," Elijah replied, calmly.

     Klaus slightly tilted his head, looking at the Salvatore siblings, "I must admit that not even I could foreshadow some sort of witch reviving someone to torment me."

     "You must be very bad with witches," Damon snarled.

     But the hybrid only chuckled, "They tend to hate you when you murder a bunch of them."

     "There are no magic traces in Ophelia. She is as human as they can be," Elijah interrupted the small talk, standing close to Ophelia. "It means she is the one thing witches hate the most."

     "Not even syphons can create such a façade. Clever little things they are, but they are even easier and more pleasurable to kill than a witch," Klaus spoke as if his words meant nothing to him.

      Ophelia slightly flinched and took one step closer towards him. "Your words do not bother me," she spoke finally and Klaus' eyebrows slightly raised. The woman before him looked incredibly fragile – it was clear that she was brought back to life. She looked malnourished and it seemed like even standing took the best out of her. Her eyes were tired. He was standing in front of a woman that has battled one thing he has never experienced fully – death.

      "They should," he disagreed with her. "You have no idea what I can do to you."

      "Everything leads to death. Anything that you could do to me would lead me back to where I belong," she took another step closer and then another. "Your words do not bother me."

      They were standing in front of each other, only a half-step separating them. The man slightly pointed his jaw down, to meet her brown eyes. She reminded him of the Salvatore brothers. Only they were too impulsive, too indulged in the fact that they are stronger than most and they can do whatever they want. She, however, was much more content. She was braver than them just by standing this close to him. She held secrets that none of them knew and it made her so much more interesting.

     "You weren't the only one who was interested in mother's journals, Elijah," Klaus spoke those words to him, but his eyes remained on her. "Leave us alone," he demanded.

     "Not in a million years," Damon immediately disagreed.

     Ophelia turned her head around and slightly nodded: "I am sure we will overcome many complications if we just do as he says."

     "At least one of you seems to have some sort of usable brain," the man behind her snickered.

     The Salvatore brothers seemed uneasy, but they knew that one wrong move could cost them a life. So without anything to say, both of them and Elijah left them alone.

     Ophelia turned around to face him, but her eyes dropped to the wall, leaving her where there was a painting hanging. It was dusty, and in need of proper restoration, but she could see it well. The frame was ornamented and reflected the poor light in the mansion and the canvas seemed dull as if it had seen so much life.

      "Michelangelo," she said and stepped closer to the painting. "La Creazione di Adamo." She tilted her head, taking in the glory of the fresco she so used to love. It showed perfection that didn't exist in the world. Adam was too perfect, it reminded God too much as it was said, that that's why Adam was so beautiful, because he was created by God himself. "I remember seeing it in Firenze. It must be my earliest memory."

     Ridiculously, Klaus did not put two plus two and did not understand that the Salvatores were Italian. The brothers seemed to grow further away from their roots as she showed a chapter from their life that was hidden for so long.

     "Michelangelo was a little bit too obsessed with drawing the human's body perfectly for my liking. The necessity to glorify humans can be too much," he stated his opinion, standing in front of her.

     "Some choose to show the world the way it is, some choose to show it better, and some worse. If you are able to separate beauty from comparing, it does not matter how the artist reflects the world."

     Klaus did not expect her to be so well-read. She possessed the ability to view things differently and it slightly bothered him. It would be easy to make her feel afraid and shaking in her stance, but he was fighting against an enemy he didn't know. She already lived. He was not the worst for her.

     "What am I?" She finally turned to him as if she could hear his thoughts.

     He didn't answer. Instead, he grabbed her hand, pushing his palm around her waist and slightly pulling her closer. She gasped, flinching as she looked up at him and she was met with the same dark veins under his eyes that scared her a little bit too much. The whites of his eyes turned red and the azure colour turned into a faded yellow as if waiting to be unleashed.

     Her skin shivered, the grip on her wrist wasn't strong, but she felt immense pressure there. Wincing, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest, almost ringing in her ears as her whole face was tingling. Klaus shuddered, feeling light-headed from the sensation – was it the softness of her skin or the power diving between her veins? And so he saw her.

      The woman's eyes were brightly golden as if he was looking at a werewolf, but the dark veins under her eyes told him that she was what he desired to be. With his free hand, he gently placed it on her cheek, feeling her flinch beneath his touch and he gently touched the dark veins with his index finger as if to figure out if this was real. His index finger moved down her cheek, to her parted lips and he gently pushed her upper lip up with his thumb, noticing a glimpse of a fang that was now there. Then, he moved away, putting his hands behind him and watching the way the glowing eyes and the veins disappeared almost instantly. As if they never were there.

     Ophelia's chest was rising, and the tingling sensation was still going around her body – it was painful, but at the same time, it didn't make her suffer. It awakened her. Blinking a few times, she adjusted to the dull light again as she swore she could see everything better for just a few seconds.

     Looking at him, she tried to decipher what he was thinking. His features seemed so stoic, his expression calm. Even if she was itching to ask him what was going on, even if his soft touch left her speechless, her soul and body were not used to a gentle touch. She had to remind herself – he could take her life if he wanted to.

     "Elijah!" Klaus invited them back and the three men walked inside immediately, meaning they were standing just outside the door, waiting to be invited.

     The Salvatore brothers seemed to be relieved that their little sister seemed unharmed, but by the way Klaus was so calm—it worried them.

     "I can understand that Ophelia possesses a very rare ability," Elijah concluded.

     "Care to finally explain?" Damon impatiently asked.

     "There was only one other person like Ophelia and it is dated almost one thousand years back. It was a human, without any doubt. But beside a special person, they took their powers. Shared them. Ignited them."

     "So does that mean that Ophelia is..?" Stefan tried to connect the dots and his face dropped, "Connected to Klaus? Is it—like a sire bond?"

     "Not at all. Ophelia carries Klaus' power which he doesn't have. He carries hers. Her choices and mood are not dependable on him as if it were a sire bond."

     Ophelia uneasily shifted in her stance, "Is there a way to give him the power? All of it?"

     Elijah and Klaus shared a look and the elegantly dressed brother slightly moved back, "You know it isn't possible," Elijah wasn't talking to her, he was talking to Klaus.

     Klaus' face changed, almost drastically – the calm expression was gone and the cheeky half-smile indicated that something devilish was going on. "All I need is a witch."

     "You know what a witch will do to her if they will find out what she is," Elijah disagreed with him. "And there is no witch on Earth that will help you break the curse."

      Klaus smiled slightly, raising his eyebrows, "There is one particular witch that should've stayed dead, but she is not. I think she will be very eager to help us."

     Ophelia just turned her head to the left, looking at the painting. Tears were prickling her eyes, but she knew how to control herself and not let herself cry. It pained her not to be able to decide for herself, to be pushed around like a rag doll, not to have a voice. But if just a little bit of pain, of degradation, meant freedom for her from this man, she'd suffer through it.

      Only then did she notice a small crack between God's and Adam's hands. And the voice in her head announced the thing she knew so well. Her death.

my lovelies,

tell me why it is the second interaction between Klaulia and there is already so much tension—?

also, in this book there will be A LOT of Italian, since I decided to embrace the fact that Salvatores come from Florence and that I'm learning Italian...

tell me your thoughts!!

-sunny xx