White Sins

Chapter Twenty-Three

Straightening up, I met Klaus' blue eyes as he turned to face me. His face was dark, a churning inferno of rage and grief. A single tear dripped down his face, a tinge of red beginning to underline his eyes.
"You could've saved him." He whispered, his voice harsh from yelling.

Letting out a deep breath, I calmly answered him, "If I had perhaps gotten here earlier, I might've. I did do my best to stop them, but I couldn't without them finding out I've been apart of the supernatural community since last fall."

Klaus shook his head angrily, rejecting my explanation. "No! You don't get to make excuses! Kol is dead!" He stepped in front of me and pointed a finger at me, "If it wasn't for your bloody fear of the doppelganger finding out about what my mother did, than he might be alive!"

I smacked his hand away from my face and pointed a finger of my own at him.
"Listen here buddy, I don't fear anything. Not you, not the doppelganger or her friends, and certainly not death." I laughed mirthlessly. How dare he think he knows me?! My thoughts are only known by one person, me.

Growling, Klaus stepped closer into my face. "You have eyes and ears all over this town, how couldn't you've gotten here sooner? You probably know things before they happen. And yet somehow, your sister planning to kill my brother, escaped your notice."

I could tell he wasn't really blaming me, he was channeling his grief into anger and frustration. Unfortunately, I'm the nearest person to let out anger on.

"Listen,  I think you should calm down," I held out my hands in a placating gesture. "In fact, we should both probably sit down. Kol just died, and my sister locked me up with you, no offense, because I went against her wishes." Gesturing towards the couch, I motioned for Klaus to sit down.

His face contorted into a sneer, "You think I'm just going to sit down, while he brother's burnt corpse is lying in your kitchen? Do you really think that low of me?"

I sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of my nose, there was only one way to help Klaus get out his anger.

"What are you doing?" He questioned as I removed my jacket, rolled up my sleeves and got into a fighting stance.

"You need to get out your anger, sitting on a couch isn't going to do it, and neither is yelling at me. So, fight me." I shifted from foot to foot, motioning for Klaus to come at me.

His sneer turned into his usual sarcastic smirk. "Really love, and what makes you think you can hold up against me?"

Smiling back, I shrugged nonchalantly, "I did before, when I was a human, and I beat you too if I recall correctly."

Klaus' eyebrow raised, and he gave me a look, "Well love, you got me by surprise that time. I doubt you could do it again, even with your newfound abilties."

"I disagree, why don't we have a rematch? It's not like there's nothing better to do." I suggested playfully, still in a defensive pose. He's being smug, that's good, means he's slowly losing track of why we're here.

"No." He shook his head vehemently, I smirked at him.

"Come on ya pansy, what's the matter, the big bad hybrid not willing to fight? For shame, your reputation is going to be embarrassed for you."

Klaus growled, "You want to fight? Alright then, let's fight!" He attacked me and we both went tumbling over furniture.

~~~~~

The couch is overturned, a leg off the coffee table is impaled in the wall. There's bits everywhere from the broken tv, one of Jeremy's Xbox remotes is somewhere in the kitchen, and I'm leaning against the floor, staring at the ceiling.

"How did one of your Converse get stuck up there?" Came Klaus' voice somewhere from my left.

"I have absolutely no idea." I replied truthfully, looking up at the discarded shoe.

It's probably getting towards dawn now, it took forever to Klaus to admit that I beat him. The living room paid the price, although I don't give a hoot because I don't live here anymore.

"What time is it?" Klaus asked wearily.

"Uhhhh....." I found my phone amidst a pile of glass shards from a vase, "Four-Fifteen."

He groaned. I sighed. This is going to be a long three days, (which is how long I estimated for them to come back because something went terribly wrong).

There are rips and tears in my clothes, and I assume Klaus' are the same. It seemed a little brawl was all he needed to help his grief. After my left shoe somehow ended up in the ceiling, I had discarded my other shoe and socks. Preferring to go barefoot.

"What's that?" His voice was curious, but more out of boredom.

"Huh?" I lifted my head up to see Klaus was across the room, leaning against the wall with his hands behind his hand. He gaze was at my feet, particularly my right one.

"That's a tattoo, isn't it?" I frowned, why was he so curious?

"What had that got to do with anythin-" I let out a small 'eep' as he had lightning-fast reached across the floor to grab my ankle and pull it into his lap.

The thing he was referring to was a tattoo on my right foot, small and unnoticable.

"A Norse rune, ansuz I believe?" He looked at me questioningly, and I nodded in affirmation. "A great choice, meaning insight and wisdom. Very much like you." His blue eyes pierced me, and I felt as if he were analyzing my soul.

His thumb rubbed idly around my heel, normally I would stop him, but I'm too mentally exhausted to care. Klaus traced his forefinger upward, running for a split second over my tattoo. A sizzling sound pierced the air and he removed his finger quickly.

"Vervain. So all along that's how you resisted compulsion. Very clever, slip a little in the ink, and no one's the wiser. Nicely hidden as well."

I raised my eyebrow at his forewardness. Normally he's not one for compliments. "Yeah, well, if you ingest it, you could drain it. And if you wear it, it could be taken away. So a tattoo was the obvious choice.

Klaus' grip on my leg suddenly tightened, I frowned. What does he want now?

"Why?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"Why would you try to save Kol, Ashley? You barely knew him, so why?"

I thoroughly contemplated that for a minute. Was it because our goals were aligned, or because he was incredibly intelligent and to see such cleverness die is a waste? Or was it for a completely different reason.

"Honestly, I figured that Elena might try to get Jeremy to kill Kol, to finish his hunter's mark and to find the cure. I knew they risked waking Silas, or causing an all-out civil war, so I was simply trying to prevent that." I answered finally.

"I do suppose that makes sense." Klaus responded, leaning his head against the wall. Taking my foot out of his grip, I shifted so I was laying more beside him. Not touching, just nearby.

"If you're done with questions, I'm going to take a nap." I grumbled before shutting my eyes. He chuckled, and whispered so I could barely hear it,

"Sweet dreams."