The Vampire Lord and the Siren

Chapter 14

Klaus’ POV:

I watched Tristian hand another amethyst pendant to Rich, who took it with a nod and immediately put it on, sighing in relief. He looked over to me and nodded slightly before taking a sip of his tea as well. I turned my attention to Caroline, who looked very uncomfortable. She was sitting with her hands folded in her lap, not looking at anyone. “Caroline, can you please tell me about the ritual? It’s so secretive that no one knows anything but the vampire lords. If you can tell me anything I would greatly appreciate it.” Tristan asked kindly.

“Care, this might help in finding out about your memory problem.” I asked while reaching over and taking her hand gently.

“Wait, what memory problem?” He sat back looking between the two. He wasn’t sure how much to trust Tristian, but it wasn’t really like he had a choice. They needed help and they couldn’t afford to be picky about who they got it from. Once they had their new id’s and she got her magic under control, he was thinking of settling down in Brighton Cove. It was near the ocean and the Napar river, so they had multiple ways to leave if they had to. Caroline looked at me with various emotions in her eyes. Was she upset that I mentioned the memory problem she had last night? Was she still unsure about Tristan?

Sighing, Caroline explained what had happened. “Klaus asked me last night how we had met. I tried to recall the exact moment and place of our meeting but couldn’t quite remember. My head started hurting the more I tried to remember.” She leaned forward and grabbed the tea cup, taking a small sip, then holding it in her hands, staring down into the warm liquid.

“Really? Have you noticed any other memory triggering the same reaction?” Tristan asked, making a grimace at his own tea. I guess the flavor wasn’t to his liking. Caroline shook her head no and stayed silent. She still refused to look up at anyone.

“Care, I think you should tell us about the ritual.” I reached over and rubbed her back slowly, trying to convey my feelings for her through the simple action.

Taking another sip of her tea, she placed it down on the table in front of her. Crossing her arms, she finally looked up and made eye contact with each of us. “Fine. But I’m only gonna say this once and I don’t want anyone interrupting. I guess you want the full details?” Tristan nodded. I was pretty sure she had told me everything already anyway, so I agreed quickly as well. Rich looked intrigued but not fully invested in any of this, so he inclined his head as well. “ OK, you asked for it.” She sighed heavily before getting into everything. She talked about how she had been awoken by one of the vampires to take a bath filled with strong smelling herbs. Tristian interjected, already breaking his promise to get her to describe the smell of the herbs in detail. She complied with the request and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. I guess even she found his enthusiasm amusing. As she moved further into the story, it started getting confusing. “I’m sorry I don’t really remember much after he told me to look at him. After that, the next thing I can accurately recall is being kissed.” I sat up a little straighter and frowned. She glanced at me before continuing, seeming to want to rush through the rest as quickly as she could. At the end of her story, Tristan stared at her in silence for a few seconds before leaning back in his seat.

“So they did the ritual and, as far as you know, it was successful for that other girl. What was her name again?”

“Helen.” Caroline said with so much sadness and guilt lacing her voice so much that I looked over to see tears threatening to overflow.

“Hey, hey it’s ok it’s not your fault. You had to save yourself. You couldn’t risk trying to save her.” I tried to console her as best as I could. She grabbed my hand and held it while nodding. Tristan watched us carefully. Catching my eyes, he nodded slightly at me.

“ OK, so the ritual happened. You somehow were able to snap out of it though, right?” He continued. Caroline nodded again, her hand squeezing mine tightly. “Hmmm I'm wondering if you were able to just because you awakened your abilities.” He leaned back and took another sip of his tea grimacing as he swallowed. “Can you think of anything else that might be relevant to this situation?”

Caroline opened her mouth but closed it immediately. A thoughtful expression graced her face. Looks like there might have been something. “Well there were a few things that I found strange even at the time.” She started. Fidgeting and looking a bit uncomfortable, she went on to explain. “In the last few days some of the vampires started acting strangely.”

“Strangely how exactly?” Tristan asked while looking intrigued. Rich was sipping his tea quietly observing us all with unreadable eyes.

“I’m not sure how to explain it. It seemed almost like they actually cared about me and not just to make sure I didn’t die, but like they actually cared.”

“Interesting. I would love to get into this further with you, but right now I really would like to start focusing on teaching you to control your abilities. Your magic and siren ones, since wherever you go it would be inconvenient to have people becoming obsessed with you. Also, based on what you told me about that ritual, that’s the most likely cause of how they are tracking you, so we need to take care of that asap. So it looks like you and I will be hanging out for a while.” He gave her a wry grin.

“Ok then. While Tristan and Caroline do their thing to get her untrackable Klaus, you come with me upstairs and I’ll work on getting you new id’s.” Rich said while standing up and motioning for me to follow him. I gave Caroline’s shoulder a squeeze to reassure her and followed Rich up to his office. The room was cozy. One whole wall was filled floor to ceiling with books and the opposite wall housed his desk, which had multiple computer screens turned on. Monitors up on the wall showed video footage of the house and side streets. He could see Stevers playing in the backyard and people walking by his car on an evening stroll. A camera was connected to one of the monitors and, even with not knowing a lot about photography, Klaus could tell it was worth a lot. “OK now first, what name did you want for yourself and then we will take a picture for your new driver's license.”

“Ummm name?”

“Well yeah dude, if the vamps are looking for you, changing your name is the least you can do. I’m sure Tristan will probably put a glamour on you and your girl as well. Which, by the way, when we talked in the past, I had no idea she would turn out so interesting and beautiful.” Rich rambled a bit while he started getting to work. I smiled and was glad to feel pride and not jealousy. Looks like that amethyst is working well.

“I told you she was gorgeous dude. It is not my fault you didn’t believe me. I didn't even know things would turn out like this, so sorry for not warning you.” I said while shrugging my shoulders. “As for a name for myself, give me a few minutes to think OK?” I walked around the room. For all the years I’ve known Rich, I’ve never been in his office before. He’s normally secretive about it, so this was a rare opportunity. Coming up with a new name was turning out to be trickier than he thought it would. He loved his name and couldn’t think of any other he wanted to be called by. Finally, throwing up his hands, he turned to Rich. “I dunno man, you come up with a name for me. I can’t seem to decide.”

Chickling Rich swiveled in his chair and looked me up and down before saying “How about Liam?”