The library at the Salvatore Boarding House had become Lucien's sanctuary over the past weeks.
Ancient leather-bound volumes lined the walls, their musty scent a comfort as he arranged the space for Katherine's visit.
He adjusted the high-backed leather chair near the window, positioning another across from it at a careful distance. Not too close - boundaries were essential - but not so far that it would seem like fear.
"This is bullshit," Dean declared from the doorway, arms crossed. "You shouldn't be alone with her."
"Contract says otherwise," Lucien replied, not looking up as he arranged a notepad and pen on the side table. "Private visits. One evening per month."
He really wasn't looking forward to this, wanted to focus more on researching about Elena's mark, but this came up the moment he arrived back home.
Dean's jaw tightened. "Take this." He offered a glass of water. "It's got vervain."
Lucien accepted it with a wry smile. "You know that amount doesn't work on her. She most definitely has built a great amount of immunity to it."
"Yeah, well, it makes me feel better." Dean ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every movement. "Just... be careful, okay? Don't let your guard down."
"I survived a mutant vampire, the Fates, and a near apocalyptic wraith," Lucien reminded him. "I think I can handle her."
Sam appeared behind Dean, his tall frame filling the doorway. "It's not about handling her physically. It's the mind games."
"I know," Lucien said, his tone sharper than intended.
John's heavy footsteps approached, his expression grim as he joined his sons. "She's here."
The tension in the room thickened immediately. John placed a hand on Lucien's shoulder, his grip firm. "Anything goes wrong, anything at all-"
"I'll call," Lucien promised.
Trevor appeared last, offering a small silver object that resembled an antique coin. "Keep this in your pocket. If you're in danger, squeeze it three times. I'll know."
Lucien pocketed the talisman with a nod, though irritation flickered across his features. For all his power, for saving John's life, they still treated him like a child who needed protection.
Sure the situation was wrong, but it wasn't that dangerous- not as dangerous as the situations before.
The sound of heels on hardwood silenced further conversation. Katherine appeared in the hallway, dressed in dark jeans and a burgundy blouse that somehow managed to look both casual and elegant.
Her smile was pleasant, practiced - the perfect picture of an older sister visiting her brother.
"Am I interrupting a family meeting?" she asked, voice lilting with amusement.
"We were just leaving," John replied tersely. He turned to Lucien one last time, eyes communicating what words couldn't. Be safe.
Dean's glare could have melted steel as he passed Katherine. Sam followed with a more measured but equally distrustful expression. Trevor gave a curt nod before disappearing down the hallway.
John hesitated at the threshold. "Two hours. No more."
"The contract doesn't specify time limits, just within this day," Katherine reminded him sweetly.
"Two hours," John repeated, his tone leaving no room for argument.
Katherine's smile never faltered. "Whatever you say... Dad."
John's jaw tightened before he turned and walked away, footsteps heavy with reluctance.
The door closed with a soft click, leaving Lucien alone with Katherine for the first time since their contract was formed.
"So protective," Katherine observed, moving into the library with fluid grace. "It's sweet, really."
Lucien remained standing, watching her movements carefully. "I wonder why?" he muttered sarcastically.
Katherine ran her fingers along the spines of ancient books, her touch almost reverent. "Because of what happened in the hospital? Ancient history." She turned, fixing him with a direct gaze. "I've kept my end of the bargain, haven't I? No inappropriate contact, helpful information about your father's recovery, complete discretion with the town."
"So far," Lucien acknowledged.
Katherine settled into one of the chairs, crossing her legs elegantly. "I brought you something." She reached into her purse, producing a slim leather volume. "A book from the Fifteenth-century- an account of Dracula's early years. Before he became the monster of legend."
Lucien accepted the book cautiously, examining its worn cover. The text was in what appeared to be Romanian, the pages yellowed with age.
"It's authentic," Katherine assured him. "I acquired it in 1652 from a monastery outside Bucharest."
Lucien flipped through the pages, genuinely interested despite himself. "You've encountered Dracula before?"
"Not directly," Katherine admitted. "But I've studied him extensively. Know thy enemy, as they say."
"And is he your enemy?" Lucien asked, taking the seat opposite her.
Katherine's smile turned calculating. "Anyone that powerful is either an ally or an enemy. There's no neutral ground when you've lived as long as I have."
For the next hour, their conversation remained surprisingly professional. Katherine detailed Dracula's known weaknesses - sunlight affected him, though not as severely as lesser vampires, but that of course could be bypassed with certain items.
She spoke of various things, things that were mere rumours, to ones that she believed were truth.
Lucien took notes, maintaining his distance both physically and emotionally. Yet he couldn't deny the information was valuable. Katherine knew things about vampires that no hunter's journal had recorded.
As the conversation progressed, Katherine gradually moved closer, her chair inching forward until their knees were almost touching. Lucien noticed but didn't comment, focused on extracting as much useful information as possible.
"There's one more thing you should know," Katherine said, her voice dropping to a more intimate tone. "Dracula can sense fear and hate. He feeds on it as much as blood."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning when you face him, you must control your emotions completely." Her hand brushed his as she pointed to his notes. "Fear and hate make him stronger."
Lucien pulled his hand away subtly. "I'll keep that in mind."
A clock somewhere in the house chimed nine times. Katherine's expression shifted, becoming more focused.
"Our time is half gone," she observed. "And there's still the matter of... feeding."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. Lucien had been dreading this moment since she arrived.
"The contract specifies once monthly," Katherine continued, her voice carefully neutral. "Direct feeding."
Lucien set his notepad aside, jaw tightening. "Let's get it over with."
Katherine's eyes flashed with something - hurt? Amusement? It passed too quickly to identify.
"It doesn't have to be unpleasant, you know," she said, moving to stand behind his chair. Her fingers brushed his shoulder, light as feathers. "Vampire bites can be... quite the opposite, actually."
"Spare me the sales pitch," Lucien replied coldly.
Katherine sighed. "I'm trying to be considerate. The enzymes in vampire saliva can cause either pain or pleasure. I'm offering the latter."
"How thoughtful," Lucien said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
Her hands settled on his shoulders, thumbs tracing small circles at the base of his neck. "Relax. Tension makes it worse."
Lucien forced himself to remain still as Katherine bent down, her breath cool against his skin. "This won't hurt," she whispered. "I promise."
Her fangs pierced his neck.
Lucien had braced for pain despite her words, but what followed was indeed as she said. A wave of pleasure washed through him, warm and intoxicating. His muscles relaxed involuntarily, head tilting to provide better access.
What the hell?
Alarm cut through the haze of pleasure. This wasn't right.
This was manipulation - another form of control.
She was trying to control him- no she was controlling him right now.
Controllinghim.
Rage bubbled up, cutting through the bliss. The Force responded instantly, surging through him, cold and powerful.
Katherine was torn away mid-feeding, her body flying across the room to slam against the far wall.
Books tumbled from shelves as she hit, but she didn't fall. Instead, she remained pinned there by invisible pressure, her feet dangling several inches above the floor.
Lucien stood, one hand pressed to his bleeding neck, the other extended toward Katherine. His eyes blazed with fury.
"What did you do to me?" he demanded.
Katherine's lips were stained red with his blood, her expression more surprised than frightened. "I told you - vampire enzymes. It's not some nefarious plot, Lucien. I didn't want to hurt you."
"Bullshit." The Force tightened around her, pressure increasing. "You manipulated me. Made me feel..." He couldn't finish the sentence.
Katherine could have broken free if she'd used her full strength - they both knew it - but she remained pinned against the wall, allowing him this control.
Lucien grit his teeth. 'What the hell does she want from me? Why is she doing this? Why-'
"Why?" Lucien demanded, his thoughts slipping onto his tongue, as he advanced toward her. "Why are you so fixated on me? Why force yourself into our lives? WHY-" His voice rose and caught, frustration mounting. "Why, just WHY!" he snapped.
"Why what?" Katherine gently asked.
"Why-" Lucien nearly bit his tongue, "Why whenever I sense your heart, do I sense so much love from you? It- It doesn't make any fucking sense!"
The question hung in the air between them, for a long, long moment.
To both minutes, seconds or hours could've passed it wouldn't have mattered.
Katherine's expression finally shifted, the practiced mask slipping to reveal something... raw underneath.
"Because..." her voice was soft, almost monotone, as if she was trying desperately to contain her emotions. "...I'm scared."
The admission was so unexpected, so contrary to everything he normally felt around Katherine that Lucien's concentration broke. The telekinetic hold vanished, and Katherine slid down the wall to sit on the floor, suddenly looking small and vulnerable.
"Scared?" Lucien repeated, disbelief evident in his voice.
Katherine didn't rise from her position on the floor. She looked up at him, then finally at the roof.
"My name... My name wasn't always Katherine Pierce you know," she said quietly. "I was born Katerina Petrova in Bulgaria, 1473."
Lucien remained standing, hand still pressed to his bleeding neck, but his anger had been replaced by wary curiosity.
"For five centuries, I've been hunted," Katherine - no, Katerina - continued. "By a god. An evil, vengeful god who will never stop until he has me... K- Klaus he calls himself."
"Klaus," Lucien repeated, with a bit of recognition in his tone. Remembering him of course from his first life.
Katherine's eyes widened slightly- since not many hunters even thought of Klaus as real, . "You know of him?" she asked- able to literally feel Lucien's belief in Klaus's existence in his tone.
"I've... read about him somewhat. He's a legend. An Original vampire."
Katherine nodded slowly. "I... became a vampire to escape him. I've been running ever since." Her gaze dropped to her hands.
The library had grown darker as night fell, shadows deepening around them. Moonlight streamed through the windows, casting Katherine's face in silver and shadow.
She was silent for minutes, just staring at her hands, not really knowing how to say any of this.
She felt tongue-tied. She wasn't used to this. But she knew- knew it was necessary.
"I tried to feel safe," she finally said, her voice hollow.
"By taking control of people's lives. Breaking them. Making them afraid like I've been afraid. Making them unable to live without me." A bitter smile crossed her lips. "I thought- I thought if I controlled enough people, killed enough threats, destroyed enough enemies, I would finally feel safe."
She looked up, meeting Lucien's gaze directly. "It didn't work. No matter how many people I controlled or killed or destroyed, it never got better. His shadow was always there, following me. I knew that one day- ONE DAY, he would... catch me. It was just a matter of time."
Lucien found himself lowering to one knee, bringing himself closer to her level, drawn in despite his wariness.
"I'm tired," Katherine admitted, the words seeming to cost her greatly. "Tired of running. Tired of being afraid. No matter what pleasures I throw myself into, the fear always grips my heart." as her gaze went down and focused on Lucien. "But then it happened. Then...
"Then you met me," Lucien continued for her, beginning to understand.
He knew Katherine well enough from his previous life, but he has never been fool enough to assume anything is the same or make any assumptions about anyone based only on past life knowledge.
Katherine nodded, a humorless smile touching her lips. "At first, I thought you were simply a boy with good psychic potential. Another pawn, another soldier, another shield against my vengeful god."
She looked away, staring at the moonlight streaming through the window. "But then I realized what you truly are. Not some psychic - but actually another god. And for the first time in five centuries, I actually felt... hope." The last word was barely a whisper.
"Hope that things could get better."
Lucien studied her, the Force allowing him to sense the truth in her words. The emotions pouring from her were genuine - fear, exhaustion, and a desperate, almost religious hope centered entirely on him.
"You're falling back into the same patterns," he said finally. "I may be 'a god' to you, but you're still trying to control me, break me, isolate me from my family. That didn't work before. It didn't make you feel safe before. What makes you think this time will be different?"
"Do you think I like this?" she snapped suddenly, anger flashing before it melted into despair, taking Lucien a bit aback, but he didn't let it show.
"Do you think I like needing someone - anyone - to keep me alive? I've run so long I don't even know-" Her voice cracked, her breath shuddering out. "I don't even know who I am without running. I-" She cut herself off as she sighed, "No, Lucien. You don't understand. I haven't been trying to control you."
"Then what do you call it?"
"I've given up on control." The admission seemed to deflate her further. "Control doesn't make me feel safe. Control means I'm the one pulling the strings, always, and I'm so damn tired of it. Tired of being clever, tired of running." She looked up at him, eyes shining with unshed tears. "Don't you realize it?"
"Realize what?" Lucien asked, genuinely confused.
"I'm giving myself to you," Katherine said simply. "I'm submitting to you. All my actions were worship for you, all so that you could just... just love me. Love me enough to protect me. To take control and protect me. My dear god."
Silence filled the library, broken only by the soft ticking of a distant clock. Lucien stared at Katherine, trying to process her words, the sincerity behind them, the desperation that had driven five centuries of survival.
"What if I refuse?" he asked finally, voice quiet but firm. "After all this, what if I don't want you? I never asked nor wanted your worship."
"I would worship you still," Katherine replied without hesitation. "Love you still. Try to be at your side still. Give myself only to you still. Try to win your love still. I- I just can't be with anyone else. Even if you won't accept my touch, I will only seek yours. I will never feel safe with anyone else. Only through loving you alone, and being loved by you, will I be... at peace."
"What if I hate you for this?" Lucien pressed after a moment of taking her words in. "What if I want you dead? What if I kill you, destroy you? Doesn't it occur to you that your actions could backfire?"
A tired, sad smile crossed Katherine's face. "I'm willing to make that gamble. Dying by your hands would be better than falling into his." She looked down at her hands. "I know I will one day end up in his hands if things continue as they are. Again, It's just a matter of time. And he will make me suffer, suffer more than anyone can imagine..."
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "At least if you kill me, I will die peacefully. Dying at the hand of a god is an honor of its own."
She looked up, meeting his gaze directly. "You aren't evil. I can sense the kindness inside your heart, have from the moment I met you. At least- At least you won't torture me. I would go wherever dying by your hand takes me - be it an existing afterlife or a new one contingent on you, as a new god. At least then, I would be far... Far from the reaches of my evil god."
The bleeding from Lucien's neck had slowed but not stopped. Throughout their conversation, he'd kept his hand pressed against the wound, blood seeping between his fingers.
Katherine's eyes tracked the movement as he adjusted his position.
Without a word, she slowly raised her wrist to her mouth and bit. Bit into it hard, till her blood welled up immediately, dark against her pale skin.
She remained seated on the floor, looking up at Lucien as she extended her bleeding wrist like a supplicant offering a sacrifice to her god.
The gesture was unmistakable - she was asking for a chance, begging him to at least let her try to make him accept her offering, her worship, her submission.
Lucien stared at the offered wrist, weighing everything he knew about Katherine against what he'd just learned about Katerina.
The manipulations against the genuine fear.
The monsterous actions against the desperate hope.
After what seemed an eternity, he knelt down fully, bringing himself to her level. He took her wrist gently and brought it to his lips.
Vampire blood was different from human blood - richer, more potent. As it touched his tongue, he could feel the wound on his neck begin to heal, the tissue knitting together rapidly.
When he'd taken enough, he lowered her wrist, his eyes meeting hers.
"Fine, Katerina," he said softly, deliberately using her true name.
Her eyes widened at the use of her birth name, a single tear escaping to trail down her cheek.
The tear caught the moonlight as it fell, looking like a tiny diamond.
Lucien stood, offering his hand to help her up. She accepted it, rising gracefully to her feet. Neither spoke as they moved to sit in the chairs they'd occupied earlier, a respectful distance between them now.
"Tell me more about Klaus," Lucien said finally, breaking the silence. "If you want me to protect you from him, I need to know everything before I decide on anything. Be it now or far in the future."
Katherine - no, Katerina - nodded, a ghost of a smile touching her lips.
For the first time since they'd met, the smile reached her eyes.
"It began in England, 1492," she started, her voice steady now. "I was young, naive. I had no idea what awaited me when I caught the eye of a nobleman named Elijah Mikaelson..."
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Do tell me how you found it.
So, what do you think will happen?
First off, Katherine was geniunely sincere here. I already put that in the chapter, but just for further emphasis I'm reiterating that.
Now, don't worry. This doesn't mean Katherine is gonna be just forgiven or some bullshit like that, or that she is gonna be some good guy. She is still a villain, just one obsessed with Lucien still. Though character development of course is possible.
Well, I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)