Vulnerable

Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Linked As One

{D. K}

"Klaus?" Dakota nervously spoke as she watched him clutch his chest, a gasp passing his lips signifying his pain. "What's wrong?"

"This was a trick," He realized. "Caroline tricked you," Klaus groaned again, his body telling him to go back into the grill. "Something's wrong with Kol."

Both vampires used their enhanced speeds to follow the sound of strained grunting. Klaus went ahead, finding Kol daggered and being dragged away by Alaric. He angrily sped down the stairs, throwing Alaric into the wall, a loud crack following the impact. Stefan received the same fate as he tried to get Klaus away from the man he had began to call a friend.

Once both obstacles were out of the way, Klaus undaggered his little brother, keeping the knife tightly between his fingers as he glared at Damon who stood there cautiously. "I should've killed you months ago."

"Do it," Damon challenged. "That's not going to stop Esther from killing you."

Betrayal flashed in Klaus' eyes as he realized Dakota had been right. "What did you say about my mother?"

"You didn't know I was friends with your mommy?" Damon prodded, his lips quirking up on one side into a lazy smirk. "We have a lot in common. She hates you as much as I do."

Dakota used the Salvatore's moment of destraction to pick up Kol and flash over to her car, that was parked in front of The Grill. Caroline stood there, sadness in her wide eyes. "Dakota, I'm sorry."

"Go screw yourself, Caroline."

Caroline ignored the jab, stepping closer, trying to touch Dakota, but the much older vampire held Caroline by her neck, fangs exposed. "I was beginning to enjoy your company Caroline, I almost considered you a friend, but then you had to turn around and stab me in the back with it." A moment of silence passed through the two, and Dakota released the blonde from her tight grip. "Did you ask me to hang out tonight just so you could distract me, or was it a genuine act of kindness?"

"Dakota—"

"Answer me, Caroline."

She sighed, her blue eyes casted downward at her feet. "To distract you, but when we were hanging out that was real. You're an amazing person, and I like being your friend."

Dakota scoffed, shaking her head as she lowered her body into her car. "Clearly not enough."

With that, she drove away, her car traveling to the Mikaelson mansion and with a heavy sigh, Dakota carried Kol fireman style taking him upstairs into a random room.

•

•

•

Klaus stayed at The Grill, anger burning away at his insides. "Leave him," Elijah demands not allowing the hybrid to end Damon's life.

He kept his grip on Damon's neck, his head turning around to see the gray veins slowly fade away from Elijah's neck and jaw. "What is mother doing, Elijah?"

"We still need him Niklaus."

Finally letting Damon go, he turned his full body to face his brother. "What did she do, Elijah."

Elijah gracefully stepped down the stairs, bypassing Stefan's fallen body as if it wasn't even there. "Tell me where the witches are, or I'll have my sister kill Elena right now." The threat was direction towards Damon, who had recovered from Klaus stopping his air flow.

Damon shook his head, forcing himself not to give into the thought of Elena hurt. She was Stefan's girl, they loved each other, she didn't love him. "The witches location won't matter, what you need to know is where Dakota is."

"Why is that?"

When Damon took a second too long to answer, it had already registered in Klaus' head what was going on. "They're going to channel Dakota's emotions, to give the witches more power."

"Why Dakota?"

"Because," Klaus snapped, running his hands over his face. "—she's a direct link to every dead witch known to man."

"She's got some pretty strong emotions right now."

"What would that be exactly? She's been with me all night."

The oldest Salvatore clocked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. "Not anger. Determination, to find her brother. Ever since I gave her a general location at the ball, it's been flowing through her pretty little head ever since. That's enough emotional channeling to power the Hoover Dam."

Elijah spoke next, urgency clear in his voice. "That much power is extremely dangerous, channeling her so carelessly could kill her."

"I doubt Esther cares, all she wants is to redo the wrong she created a thousand years ago."

"Well she can redo her wrongs all she wants, but not if it means killing my girlfriend." Klaus went to the only place he could think of that Dakota would've taken Kol too. "Kol," he called out to his brother who had awoken moments before. "Dakota," He sighed in relief when she walked past the corner. "—"let's go. Damon told Elijah and I where the witches were."

"What is mothers plan?"

Klaus hesitated. "They're using Dakota's connection to the witches to syphon your emotions to make my mother stronger."

"That explains a lot."

"What do you mean?"

Dakota lifted the shirt that she had changed into when she made it into the Mikaelson home. Her dress was growing rather uncomfortable and she wasn't liking how unfitting it was during the current situation.

As more of her creamy skin was shown, the grey lifeless skin peeked through just past her denim jeans.

No one commented on the sight that Dakota had shown, in fear that they upset Klaus, or Dakota herself. Instead, they all rushed to the old burnt down home that killed all of the witches. "My sons," Esther greeted, looking much more beautiful than Dakota ever imagined. Now she understood where her offspring got their ravishing looks from, because it sure as hell wasn't Mikael. "—come forward."

Finn, the oldest brother reached out to his mother, muttering out a small, "Stay beside me."

"It's okay," Esther comforted her son. "They can't enter."

Dakota looked at the salt drawn pentagram, she'd seen it once in a grimrore that belonged to Bonnie's great-great-great-great grandmother. As the three got too close to the barrier, fire blazed brighter than she though possible of the five makeshift tiki lights.

"That's lovely," Kol sardonically praised. "We're stuck out here while the favorite son plays sacrificial lamb. How pathetic you are, Finn."

"Be quiet, Kol. Your brother withholds a virtue you couldn't even begin to imagine

Elijah sneered at his mother. "You're killing your own children. You should be considered an atrocity."

"My only regret, is that I didn't let you die a thousand years ago. Now that I have Dakota's help—"

"Without my consent of course."

"—and my connection to the Bennett witches, I can undo my mistake."

Dakota shook, her body loosing energy as it fought overtime to support her, but the witches were taking so much energy from her at once that she was going numb. A void that ridded her body from feeling, not only emotionally but physically as well. Dakota went limp, her eyes open but not seeing. Her vision was covered by a dark black film, but she had no energy to fight the witches that were slowly taking a vital pieces of her away. Her life, her emotions, herself.

"No," Esther cried out. "—sisters, do not abandon me!"

The ground beneath them quaked, and the fire burned bright, hiding Esther and Finn's bodies from sight. But as the bond between the witches and Esther broke, the link between the siblings did as well.