25 | BLACK MAGIC

It was a month after the failed Harvest attempt and not much had happened. Except for the fact that Klaus and Rebekah travelled to Mystic Falls to witness the death of one Katerina Petrova - Khalia had never cared much about her to being with so she stayed behind and happily watched over over, it was quiet in New Orleans. Almost disturbingly so. Khalia was never one complain about peace and quiet so she enjoyed it for as long as she could. Her and Hayley has also been spending some time together but the immortal girl made sure that it wasn't to much so that Hayley would begin to hope for something more between them.

"Good morning, sweetheart. Sleep well?" Khalia asked, walking into Hayley's room. A frown immediately settled on her beautiful face when she saw the tears shining in the pregnant girl's eyes. She sped next to the bed. "Hayley, what's wrong?"

"I just..." The werewolf took a steading breath, looking down at her bloated stomach. "I can't get a comfortable position to sleep in. I'm up half the night, tossing and trying to find a comfortable position but I never find it."

"Oh." Khalia said dumbly, not knowing what to do. Give her a building to infiltrate, and she could do it in the blink of an eye, but a pregnant woman? She doesn't know anything, which is why she read those books. Books. An idea crossed her mind as she remembered reading something about sleeping pillows.

"Khalia, could you please get your arse out of bed, we have a problem!" Klaus shouted as he entered the Compound and before Khalia could tell her idea to Hayley, words echoing through the Mikaelson's home. Said girl rolled her eyes.

"I have an idea, but it would have to wait for the momemt. I'll see you later, sweetheart." Khalia told Hayley with a slight smile before speeding down to where she heard Klaus' voice come from. "I've been out of bed for quite a while, brother. What is the problem this time?"

"Diego was about to show me." He pointed to the Afro haired vampire behind him. Khalia hid a smile when she saw Marcel with them - he has been looking deep into the bottle in the past month, not that she blames him. She was so much worse after Kol died. "Let's go."

The vampires sped of, following the much younger one. Thunder rumbles overhead as Diego leads Marcel, Khalia and Klaus to the Cauldron to show them what he found. There are two vampires, both desiccated, and both with the same magical symbol carved into their forehands. Their bodies lay inside a magic circle created with salt, with runes drawn inside.

"Well, that looks rather unpleasant and painful." Khalia noted with raised eyebrows. She recognised the vampires as two of Marcel's army. She frowned as she looked down at them, wondering who would have the guts to pull something like this after the failed Harvest attempt and with Klaus' reign over the city. The runes looked slightly familiar to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"We came to mess with the witches, just like you said. And these two, they went missing. Found them like this, not even staked. Just dead." Diego informed the two Originals, watching as Khalia's nose wrinkled in distaste the longer she looked at the bodies.

Marcel looked at the Hybrid with a blank look, "That's two more of my guys gone. Nice job, Captain." Marcel takes one look at his dead men, puts his hood up, turns around, and starts to walk away.

"Where are you going?" The Hybrid roared, watching as his adoptive son. walks away from him. "Someone has to account for this!" If there was one rule Klaus Mikaelson lived by, it would be : an eye for an eye. If Khalia was being completely honest, she didn't think her brother cared about this army all to much. He just wanted to rule the city.

"You want revenge, get it yourself. That mark is tied to some bad mojo." Marcel warned before he turns to the rest of the vampires. "Any of y'all got any brains, you'll head back to the compound and stay the hell out of this." Marcel walks off, the brunette Mikaelson watching him with a frown. Marcel isn't the type to run from a fight, even if he is mourning, he braces it head on. So, what the hell was so bad that Marcel would run? Maybe it had something to do with why the runes looked familiar to her.

Klaus turns to Diego, "We're gonna find whoever did this, and I will show them what suffering is." Klaus swore as he looked at his vampires. Then he turned to his brunette sibling. "Will you join me, sister?"

"Well, we're immortal and damned already, so what the hell is going up against some black magic?" The Demon Mikaelson shrugged, a smirk curling on her lips. Klaus matched her smirk perfectly, although Khalia's was a tad more dangerous.

"But first, we need a plan."

***

Needing a plan is how they ended up back at the Compound. Klaus, Khalia, Elijah, Diego, and many of the other vampires are congregating in the courtyard, discussing their current situation. It was safe to say that the Hybrid's patience was running out quickly and Elijah was getting antsy, knowing that if Klaus decides to do something impulsive and stupid, Khalia would follow him without a second thought and God help them when that happens.

"Ah! Someone will die for this." Klaus all but roared and Khalia rolled her eyes, barely resisting the urge to snap at him for being so dramatic. It is a family trait, after all.

"Remarkably, I don't disagree and I know our dear sister Khalia is always ready to kill. However, I would like to know where they learned such dark magic." Elijah, the most rational one between them, informed his two short tempered siblings.

"Yeah, but first we need to figure out who this 'they' is, if we are going to kill them or he or she. We can't kill our enemy if we don't know who it is." Khalia shrugged and Elijah was once against reminded that his sister is actually an excellent planner when it came to battle.

"I had hoped never to see that symbol again. I recall it is the signature of a fool who once stood against us." Klaus explain and it was like a light-bulb-going-of moment for Khalia, that's why the runes look familiar. The was a warlock that wanted to do business with her family, but Klaus ended up kill him. Other than that, she doesn't really remember the warlock.

"Which one was that again?" Khalia asked with furrowed eyebrows. Although she remembers the man slightly, she and Kol were mostly hanging around witches here - and for the majority of the time the female twin was drunk due to her dislike in witches. This could also be a reason why she doesn't really remember the warlock.

"Tunde." Klaus supplied helpfully, lips tilting upwards slightly.

"Ah," Khalia nodded in realisation. "The one whose twin son's you murdered, right?" Her blonde brother nodded again.

"Clearly, some upstart witch is salvaging old tricks." The eldest Mikaelson said, disapproving look on his face obviously directed towards his younger brother and his actions of centuries ago.

"I'll do for him as I did the other." The Hybrid spat, before he turns to Diego. "Diego, when night falls, I want you to gather every vampire in the Quarter. Get me the head of whoever did this and put it on a stick."

"Yeah. That's gonna be a problem. Everyone is freaked out, man. We haven't had witches killing vampires in a long time. Marcel made sure of that." The dark skinned man explained nervously.

"Marcel has run off like a scared child. You lot are left with me. Now, who of you will fight to defend our home." He looks around and is disappointed to see that no one comes forward. "Not a single one of you will stand with me, so afraid are you of this new threat? You should know better. I'll handle this myself." Klaus went to storm of but Khalia just grabbed him by the back of his jacket.

"Oh, would you stop with the temper tantrums already? You're a thousand years old, not five." She snapped at him, eyes glaring at her older brother. "I already told you, I am fighting by your side against this."

The Hybrid stared at her silently, unwilling to admit how much affect her words has on him. "Lets go."

The two sped of together, leaving behind a stunned vampire army. Elijah barely blinked at the fact that his younger brother didn't do anything to the dressing down their younger sister gave him.

"Man, I thought for sure Klaus would snap her neck for talking to him like that." Diego noted and murmurs of agreement came from the vampire around them.

Elijah's lips quirked up in slight amusement. "Niklaus may have the advantage of strength, but Khalia has the advantage of being a smart, lethal and vicious fighter. My brother knows that if he was to go up against our sister, he would end up with a snapped neck."

"She really that good?" Diego asked with skepticism, he has heard the stories of the Hybrid.

"Better than you could ever imagine." Elijah nodded firmly. Up on the balcony Hayley listened to them with curiosity. Back when Khalia threw herself infront of Klaus to protect her and Rebekah told her that she could handle herself, she didn't think that the brunette female immortal was that good. A proud smile lifted on the pregnant girl's lips.

***

Following her brother, Khalia wondered where the hell he was going. While aking a lot of phone calls to Marcel - only one being answered - she finally found out they are headed to the Cauldron. They found a drunk Sophie, stumbling around with her own bottle of liquor as she approaches Klaus and Khalia in an alley in the Cauldron.

"Big, bad Klaus Mikaelson and evil, demon Khalia Mikaelson." A predatory glint lit up in the witches eyes as she watched the brunette Mikaelson. "You know, they say that although you are evil, you know how to show someone a good time." A drunken, sultry gaze zeroed in on Khalia. "Want to show me a good time, Khalia?"

"Never." The immortal girl denied immediately, face contorting in disgust and taking a step back when Sophie tried to stumble over to her. Klaus decided - no matter how amusing the look on his sister's face was - he had enough of this and decided to get down to business.

"Sophie. Just the witch I was looking to brutalize." He speed vamps toward Sophie and grabs her in a choke-hold. "Perhaps you could explain the attacks on my men."

Sophie examines the abandoned desiccated vampires that was left for the other vampires to find, with Klaus and Khalia watching impatiently. Patience really wasn't either of their forte's.

"It's a complex spell. Old-school stuff, rooted in sacrificial magic. Whoever did this to your guys, my guess is they were an offering to gain more power. More guys they kill, more power they have." The witch explained and Klaus' phone rings. When he sees it's Cami, he answers it and Khalia decides not to eavesdrop for once. Sophie looked over at Khalia nervously. "Sorry about what I said earlier."

"You mean when you asked me for sex?" She said bluntly, raising an eyebrow and clearly unimpressed.

"Yeah." Sophie fidgeted with her hands. The witch cleared her throat and looked Khalia in the eyes. "Would you maybe wanna go out for a drink sometime?"

"Sophie, when I said 'never' earlier, I meant it." Khalia bluntly told her once again. Sophie nodded, cheeks red with embarassment as she looked anywhere but the female Mikaelson. The witch wasn't really surprised, she saw the way Hayley and Khalia looks at each other. No harm in trying, right?

"Khalia, we need to leave. The witch is busy killing Marcel." Klaus' frantic voice made her turn to him, just in time to see him speeding of. She immediately followed, knowing that if she lost him, she'd have no way to find him.

They arrived at a familiar bar. Rousseau's. Speeding inside after her brother, Khalia spotted the man her brother killed centuries again. Papa Tunde. "I remember killing you. I rather relished it. What a joy it is to relive fond memories."

"Oh, for fuck sakes!" Khalia swore, lightly throwing up he hands in the air. "What is it with our enemies not being able to stay dead?" She all but snarled in anger and frustration.

"You're here. Good. I can crush you before the eyes of your son. Then, I will consume you and your sister. This time, I'm stronger." The witches dressed in a white suited was looking smug and all kinds of cocky. It irrtated the brunette Mikaelson.

"You are off your rocket, you gigantic psycho." Khalia commented before launching herself at Papa Tunde. He flicked his wrists and impaled her to the wall of the restaurant with pieces of wood from the bar in her arms, her thighs, one in her stomach and two in her chest but both missed her heart.

Papa Tunde has Klaus, his skin was starting to desicate and Khalia tried to rip her arms off the wall, but couldn't. He must have spelled the wood so that she couldn't just rip her arm of the wall. Her vampire eyes came out as she watched her brother being desicated, anger taking her over as a roar of fury left her. "I am going to rip you into a million little pieces for hurting my brother!"

Papa Tunde is about to finish him off, when his connection to Rebekah and her power breaks. Tunde becomes weak, which allows Klaus to stun him long enough to rush over to Marcel. The spell over Khalia also breaks and she used all of her strength to rip herself of the wall, landing on her knees.

"Uhhh, is he dead?" The human blonde asked warily, refering to Marcel as Klaus sped to his sister's side and quickly removed all of the stakes Tunde embedded into her body. Khalia gave him a grateful smile.

"Get out of here." The Hybrid ordered her.

"Is Marcel dead? Did that guy kill him?" The blonde asked again and fucking hell, she was annoying the shit out of the healing immortal girl that collapsed on a bar chair.

"He didn't finish him off. Marcel needs blood to heal. Go. Find me someone off the street." Klaus told her, walking over to them when he was sure his sister wouldn't fall of her chair.

"I'll do it." Cami offered and Khalia personally thought that she was defenitely one of the stupidest humans she has come across.

"No. Not you. I don't want you involved in this." The blonde man denied sternly, clearly worrying about the safety about the human.

"You don't control me anymore, remember?" Cami said definately and if it was a normal day, Khalia could have been impressed with her ability to stand up to her brother.

"Hey blondie, I get you are pissed of because Nik took away your free will and I don't know how much you know about me, but some of my less that admirable traits, is my short temper and tendency to kill anyone that I want. Right now, I am healing, thirsty and exhausted, which means but if you don't shut the fuck up, you are going to end up dead." Khalia threatened, slightly out of breath, looking dead beat tired and she was pale. Blood was staining her clothes all over, her chest was bloody and holes in her jeans from where she was staked by Tunde.

Cami stayed quiet before rushing over to Marcel and puts his mouth to her neck. "It's okay, Marcel. It's okay. It's okay, Marcel." Klaus looks on the two of them with a look of jealousy that Khalia misses because she dropped her head on the bar counter, utterly exhausted.

A few hours later they were back at the Compound, Khalia was in the kitchen, going through bloodbag after bloodbag to regain her strength when an awkward looking Marcel entered the kitchen. She didn't turn to him or acknowledge him but he knew she was well aware of his presence. The sireling also knew not to get to close to the Mikaelson sister or he would end up with a snapped neck. Khalia is not Rebekah.

"I wanted to ask you something." He finally said after an almost painful silence. Khalia hummed, signaling to him that she heard him and that he could continue talking. The older vampire heard him take a deep breath. "Does it ever get any better?"

"Does what get better?" The brunette immortal was confused. Marcel hesitated, wondering if she could decapitate him for his next question.

"The pain of losing someone you love." The male just decided to go with it and blurted the words. He watched as Khalia froze, muscles tensing and for a second, Marcel feared for his life. And then she sighed before turning around to him.

"Yes. At first, it doesn't

and you learn to live with the soul aching pain. And then one day, little by little, it starts to hurt a little less than it did the previous day." Her voice was uncharacteristically soft and gentle.

"What's the worst part?" Marcel asked, feeling a little more brave with the emotional look on the normally blank face of the vampire that was the most dangerous woman in the world.

Khalia didn't have to think about her answer. "The longing to see him one last time. To tell him I love him. To hug him. Missing him. But if I had to pick one, then I'd say the absolute worst has to be, to live with the fact that I'm never going to see him again." Her voice broke slightly and she had to clear her throat in order compose herself.

"Does it ever go away?" His voice was soft and full of pain.

The smile on her lips was small and clearly pained as pain pumped through her veins when she answered. "I haven't gotten to that point yet."

***

i half liked writing this chapter and half hated writing this chapter.

also, i don't hate Cami but Khalia already doesn't like humans, now she's healing, tired and hungry from just having multiple stakes driven into her body, so i figured this was the only response to Cami at that moment that would do Khalia justice.

what do you guys think?

-Mixie