II - 𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔤𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰 & 𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔩𝔢𝔡 𝔥𝔞𝔦𝔯

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"OUCH!"

The golden bedroom rang with his outburst. Lilura could feel the floor shaking as if to display its displeasure at being disturbed.

"Oh stop being such a baby," She replied, continuing to irritate Klaus. "Just one more..."

"NO! No more, please!"

Klaus Mikaelson's plea prompted a snort from the young woman, "Oh, the great Original begging for me to stop."

Lilura gauged her fiance's reaction through the mirror they were both situated in front of. Her giggling increased in volume when she caught his clenched jaw and furrowed eyebrows. The brush in her hand hung limply as her other hand gently parted his almost straight hair.

"You need this, Nik. I need this! I can't have a husband with tangled hair."

The vampire fought off a grin as he turned around to face his beautiful partner, "If this were anyone but you, I'd rip their limbs off with saturated pleasure."

"What does that even mean?" Lilura asked, combing through his hair.

The softness in his blue eyes threw the young woman off for half a second. It was an expression he hardly ever wore. "It means I bloody love you, woman." Klaus smiled.

Suddenly he was standing up and prowling forward, completely disregarding Lilura's insistent hand gestures to sit back down.

"I'm not done with your hair yet!" She giggled. "It's once in a cosmic lifetime I get to hear Klaus Mikaelson beg for something." She felt her feet hit the edge of the bed. She warded Klaus off with a hand to his chest, though she giggled nonetheless.

"If anyone's going to be begging tonight," He whispered, eyes lighting up with golden flames, "It's going to be you, my love."

---- Δ ----

"Bonnie, what do you know about Lilura Anthemoessa?"

The teenage witch fixed her scarf, eyebrows scrunched in contemplation. "Would you believe me if I said nothing?"

"Nothing?" Elena echoed. "How is that possible? If she is so important to stopping Klaus then why doesn't anyone know anything about her? What about the grimoires?"

"I'm serious." Bonnie ran a hand through her black hair. "It's driving me insane. All I know from the witches is that she is vital to our mission. She's special. Deadly. Unpredictable. All the adjectives."

"Is she trustworthy?"

"I don't know," Bonnie whispered. "Lilura seems like the kind of person to have no loyalties. I'm afraid you're on your own for the time being. At least until I can find out something else about her."

---- Δ ----

"Siren." Stefan slammed the book in front of a grinning Lilura.

"Très bon !" She clapped merrily.

"Siren?" Damon scoffed, throwing an arm around the enchantress' shoulders. "You stopped our dance party for this?"

Stefan held back an exasperated sigh and flipped open the book. Upon closer inspection it was quite old and worn, but the leather indicated it's true era. The 1800s, Lilura deduced.

She would have thought it was a book on mythology. However, hastily scribbled in the book was her history - what they could make of it at least.

"Sirens are sea creatures that have been drowning sailors and pirates alike for the past centuries with their singing. In many works of fiction, like Odyssey, men have had to chain themselves up to merely survive their charm.

I believed them to be fable, until I met Lilura Scolpilo."

Lilura mused, "That really was a good name, wasn't it?" Then, as if by switching the lights the smile fell from her face. "Too bad Jonathan Gilbert went absolutely bonkers. I wonder why?"

The tone in which she said it made Damon and Stefan stiffen up.

That was the thing about Lilura Anthemoessa, she delivered her words like they were children being put to sleep. She drawled remarks like they were meant to caress the wounds of soldiers and recline the most uptight of people. It was pleasing, hearing her speak. It was also heart wrenching.

It was one of her gifts. She has always believed words were more powerful than blows.

"Oh, don't look at me like that!" She whined when Damon flashed her an uncertain glance.

"Well, did you?" He gestured to the book, alluding to the fact that Lilura had driven Jonathan Gilbert insane.

"No," She pouted. "I'd love to take credit for it. But no. He went completely insane all on his own."

"He wrote a lot about you," Stefan said, cautiously thumbing through the yellow pages.

"He was obsessed," Lilura agreed indifferently. "Infatuated."

"Here: I met her in Paris. She was so beautiful she made the stars look less in comparison. When she smiled, everyone smiled. When she was furious, her entire being lit with fire. When she was nostalgic, you could not help but be nostalgic for something you've never known.

She swayed the very being of France, and rallied the romance in the air.

It was aggressive, all of her beauty. Her hair resembled the black of the Parisian sky. Her skin, so soft, so olive. And her eyes...those blue green eyes will be the death of me."

A short silence followed Stefan's reading.

"Huh. That's not creepy at all," Lilura quipped, her sarcastic British nature shining through.

Damon's answer was a dramatic push of the play button, and suddenly the Salvatore Boarding House was pulsing with dance music.

Lilura gave Stefan a wink before joining his brother in a twirl.

---- Δ ----

Shortly after her dance party with the fun Salvatore, Stefan pulled Damon away and started whispering in hushed tones.

Evidently not interested in whatever the hell they were discussing, Lilura opted to go through the massive library.

Sitting near the fireplace with her feet tucked under her, wine glass inches away and thick black hair in a messy ponytail, the enchantress was reminded of the times she would lounge in Klaus' study.

He had always obstinately refused to have his wife in the room on the ridiculous premise that she distracted him.

Of course, Lilura was never one to obey rules. Every night she would situate herself comfortably in Klaus' thinking chair, which would irritate the living daylights out of him, and read any of the interesting books she had managed to find in Elijah's study.

She remembered being very pleased when she heard the groans of frustration, and the soft wisp of air that transferred when Nik Mikaelson would whisper to hell with it and hug her from behind, work utterly discarded and forgotten like every rule he had set for Lilura.

"Hey," A voice echoed in the library, startling Lilura out of memory lane.

"Hey," She smiled, snapping the book shut and faceing the doppelganger.

"We've decided to consult Katherine, for more information," Elena bit her lip.

"You want me to come along?"

As if she hadn't heard Lilura's question, Elena continued, "Obviously, the boys trust you. Bonnie does, kind of. So... I guess I trust you."

That earned a small smile from the siren. "I admire your faith, Gilbert."

"Yeah, but just know if you suddenly turn on us, I have a witch who's willing to do anything to save me."

Lilura cocked an eyebrow, "You've been researching."

"Just a little bit," Elena Gilbert grinned. "After you."

Outside, the Salvatore brothers stood, moonlit faces filled with harsh excitement.

"What a joy," Lilura sighed, begrudgingly slipping into the car. "Two brothers visiting their ex lover who looks like their new lover, and a siren tagging along to see the woman she heard steal her husband."

Elena could find no words to encompass her feelings, but Damon certainly could. "Damn straight," He smirked, revving the car.

"We all know Katherine is conniving," Stefan said solemnly. "However, she's desperate, so she'll cooperate."

"I must meet this amazing woman," Lilura pipped out of the blue. "I've only heard stories. The ones my lovely sea muppet's bring back to me, but I've never seen seen her."

"I thought you were mad she tried to go for your hubby," Damon frowned, parking near a... cave?

"A little. He is my husband after all, but she must be good," The siren cackled loudly to Elena's bewilderment.

"Well here's opportunity knocking at your door," Stefan grunted, shifting aside a slab of rock. "Katherine's awake, and she's hungry."

Inside the moist walls of the cave, a woman reclined in the darkness and croaked, "Please...come on in. There's plenty of room for all of us."

"I'd rather poke my eyes out," Damon snarled.

"Mmm, they're such pretty eyes."

"Don't, I rather need a competent chauffeur for a tour of this common town."

The two women had spoken at the same time, which warranted a weird glance from the trio.

Katherine Pierce hid in the shadows, but caught sight of Lilura all the same. It was hard not to. It was as if she were a lone star on a tar painted sky - destined to shine.

"Is that a rat?" Came Lilura's upturned nose as she spotted movement in the shadows.

Stefan Salvatore cracked a small grin as Katherine blanched indignantly.

"And what are you supposed to be?" The elusive Katherine finally stepped into the light.

"Prettier than you," Lilura did not waste a beat. "Generally better than you."

"We're here for the moonstone," Stefan interrupted, cutting a smirking Katherine off before she could even speak.

"Feel like tossing it over?" Damon crowed, making sure to stay as far away from his ex-lover as possible.

"Tell you what, you get your little witch to hocus pocus me out of here, you can have whatever you want."

"I thought you liked it in here. Nice and safe where Klaus can't get to you."

At the mention of her husband, Lilura stiffened. She realized that Katherine could quite possibly blow her cover, but the vampire seemed to be interested in something else for the moment.

"I've had time to reconsider," She croaked, catching Lilura's eye.

"Meaning you're hungry," Damon muttered.

"I'm starving, Damon. And dirty. But above all, I'm bored!" She slammed her hands onto the barrier.

"At least running from Klaus wasn't boring," Her doe brown eyes - so similar to Elena's yet so different - twinkled and watched Lilura. "So here's the deal: you get me out of here, you get the moonstone and I'll disappear from Mystic Falls forever."

"Scared, are we?" Lilura asked, shoulders tensed.

The two women seemed to be in their own little world, and the trio could not be entirely sure it had to do with their alike personalities.

"I know you aren't," Katherine shrugged, eyes flashing. "But let me ask you something Lilura Valerie Anthemoessa."

The aforementioned woman cocked a hip to the side, as if to say try me.

"How long do you think he's going to let you last?"

Katherine spoke faster. She knew she had Lilura right where she wanted and the doppelgänger needed to capitalize on it. It wasn't every day she could dig into a siren. "Because people change, enchantress. He's not going to be the same guy that swore an oath to protect you in sickness and in health," She mocked.

"He doesn't want his old life back," Katherine pouted in exaggerated sympathy, "and he certainly doesn't want his old wife back either."

With the bomb dropped and smashed, Lilura sent Katherine a chilly smile as her only response. Shivers ran collectively down everyone's back, including Katherine's but the vampire would never admit that.

"Let me know what you decide," Katherine drawled, holding up the moonstone and stumbling back inside the recesses of the cave.