Free of family

9

"Ark!" Alexis called as she and Xavier rushed into the house. "Ark!"
"We're in here!" He called and the siblings came into the room.
"We have a problem." Xavier said.
"Katherine has the necklace. She was pretending to be Elena and I fell for it and she got the necklace."
"I am going to kill her one of these days." He scowled. "There's no way she's got any good ideas with the necklace."
"It's Katherine. She's never up to any good with anything." Bonnie rolled her eyes.
"Although this could be a good thing."
"It could?"
"Someone was searching for the necklace, it's why it was so volatile."
"To track something you need a link to the object."
"Unless you're tapping into dark magic. Assuming this witch is using regular magic, there's only one thing strong enough to be used to track the necklace."
"What?"
"Rebekah. She's been wearing it her whole immortal life. And if Rebekah's searching for the necklace, that means Klaus undaggered her. And if Klaus undaggered her, there was a reason leading right back to the necklace. As long as the witch hasn't yet found us, then Katherine taking the necklace means Katherine's being tracked."
"What's the chance of that happening?"
"Why don't you, Elena and Caroline stay over tonight?" Alexis offered. "If anything goes wrong, and Klaus shows up, Ark and Xave'll be a shout away."
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure this place is big enough for the whole of Mystic Falls to bunk in. It's totally fine." Alexis said.
"Okay, I'll run it by the girls." Bonnie said.
"As for tomorrow.."
"Senior prank night. We have to go or Caroline will murder us all."
"If Klaus hasn't shown up by the afternoon, the evening'll probably be fine. I'll be around just in case." Arkyn said.
"Also this is your senior prank night too, and you don't want to face Caroline's wrath."
"Noted." He said.
"I'll go call Elena and Caroline." Bonnie walked away.
"Stop staring." Xavier teased.
"Have you got your bags packed?"
"Yes."
"Okay, don't forget to order things for your dorm. Get a rug for your room, and a good coffee machine. A mini fridge, and new bedsheets. You need a new laptop- go crazy, Xavier." Arkyn pulled out his card.
"If you insist." Xavier took the card from Arkyn's hands and left to go do just that.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" Alexis asked.
"I think he'll be just fine." Arkyn put his arm around her. She leaned her head on his chest and he put his other arm around her. "He'll be okay, Lex. We'll see him a lot, okay?"
"Okay." She said softly.
"You want to tell me about the burnt grimoires?"
"Not today." She said in a small voice.
"Okay."
"So Elena's on her-" Bonnie stopped. "Sorry, I'm interrupting."
"No no, it's fine." Alexis smiled. "Come on in, Bonnie."
"Okay. So Elena's on her way, but Caroline's going to be a little longer." Bonnie said and Arkyn nodded.
"Okay. If you guys need any clothes or anything, you can borrow some of Alexis's. And you want to go find a room now?"
"Uh, sure."

Three hours later Alexis, Bonnie, Caroline and Elena were hanging out. Xavier was in his room and Arkyn sat in his study. Rebekah was alive, it seemed. He wasn't sure how to feel about it. He loved his sister, but she wasn't the best of people. And she always completely loyal to close Klaus, aside from when she'd called Mikael to New Orleans. Arkyn sighed and leaned back in his chair suddenly feeling suffocated. He walked out of the room and headed to his backyard, in an attempt to clear his mind. He sat on a bench, looking up at the stars. He didn't know how long he was out there. He heard the girls' chatter slow down and eventually quieten. He saw Xavier's light go out. But he didn't go back inside. Caroline came out to him.
"Ark?" She said, standing at the door.
"Hey, Caroline." He greeted, as she walked out to him.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"I'm okay." He shrugged. "Are you?"
"I'm okay." She mimicked, sitting beside him.
"You're a bad liar." He said. "Remember?"
"So are you."
"I'm not lying."
"You said coming outside and looking at the sky helps you when you're feeling kind of down." She pointed out. "That's what you're doing right now."
"I was just thinking about my sister." He said.
"Oh."
"Your turn. Why are you out here?"
"Did you love your brothers? Even after they daggered you?"
"I stopped caring for my brothers long before that." He frowned. "Why?"
"My dad was in town." She said. "He was on the town council- they're vampire hunters."
"I know. Your dad was on it?"
"Yeah. I was at Tyler's and his mom found out I was a vampire so she called my dad. He thought he could teach me to resist everything about being a vampire."
"He tortured you."
"Kind of." She said.
"Come with me." Arkyn suddenly stood.
"What?"
"Come on. Stand up." He said and she did as he said. He led her back into the house and down to the basement.
"So you aren't gonna, like, kill me now, are you?" She asked.
"No I'm not going to kill you." He laughed, turning on the light switch.
"Why do you have a car hanging from the ceiling?"
"Well, usually punching bags break after one punch, so we came up with something a little sturdier." He explained. "Whenever Xavier or Lex get frustrated, they lash out at the car with their magic. And I give it a good old beat down."
"Cool. Why am I here?"
"Being outside isn't what you need. Someone you trusted hurt you. Your father tied you down and tried to change you, but you love him and you don't want to fight back. You couldn't fight back." He said, and she looked away from him. "But that anger inside? You need to let it out." He gestured to the car. "So let it out."