42 | BLAZING INFERNO

"So, are you really hungry, or just jealous?" Khalia asked, lips adoring a smirk, once they reached the kitchen. She stared at the pregnant werewolf expectantly.

"Both?" Hayley's answer sounded more like a question. Khalia picked her up and gently put her on the counter, knowing that Hayley likes watching her work, if the way she kept her eyes glued to the vampire last time they were in here was any indication.

Khalia stepped closer to her, standing in between Hayley's legs. "Hayley, there is nothing to be jealous of."

"Yes, there is." Hayley nodded her head firmly, enjoying the closeness with the vampire. "She's the competition. I have to take her out."

Khalia snorted in amusement, then cocked her head in curiosity. "Competition for what, exactly? My attention?"

"That too." Hayley looked like she was reciting the universe's fundamental truths. "But mostly your heart."

The look on Khalia's face was impossibly soft and fond. The werewolf's breath caught in her throat because finally, she looks at me that way. Only, it was with so much more depth and adoration. "Hayley, when I said there's nothing to be jealous of, I meant that you don't have anything to be jealous of because I do not see her that way. I would never allow her any of what I allow you."

"And how do you see me?" Hayley asked in a whisper, mind racing over those words. How did Khalia see her? Was it just different from Francesca because she didn't like her and she liked Hayley more than Francesca? Or was it different because Hayley is different from anyone else in this world for her? Like Khalia is for Hayley.

Khalia thought for a few moments, thinking her words over carefully. Finally she settled on, "I don't fancy her."

Hayley's heart stopped in her chest, eyes widening, but still. She has to know for sure. "What about me?"

Khalia raised a brow, "If I say no, will you stop pursuing me?"

Hayley didn't even have to think about her answer. "No, I won't."

"Then I guess there is no use in lying, is there?" Khalia asked with a sly smile.

"So, you do see me that way?" Hayley frowned a little impatiently, not able to figure it out and even if she could, she didn't want to draw conclusions without a real answer.

"Yes, I fancy you." Khalia admitted shyly with a roll of her eyes, ignoring the way her cheeks started heating up. "Now, what do you want to eat?"

Hayley wanted jump up and down in joy, dance in happiness, but just accepted the change in conversation with a grace she had no idea she possessed. I fancy you, the words resounded in her head. Butterflies erupted in her stomach and the werewolf girl smiled goofily at her vampire, heart filled to the brim with all of the love she felt for Khalia. "A chicken and mayo sandwich."

"Coming right up." Khalia gave her a small smile and the only thing Hayley regretted about this day so far, was the fact that Khalia moved away from her to make the food.

Later on, Hayley - who was armed with her sandwiches - and Khalia, along with her brother's watched carefully as Genevieve continues to cast the moonlight ring spell in the Mikaelson compound. Khalia had no idea what was going on, but didn't care as long as the end product is what was promised.

Genevieve holds her hands out and chants. "Tua virtuse. Materi lunare tua virtuse. Materi lunare tua virtuse."

Francesca rushes in hurriedly just as Hayley finishes her last sandwich. The werewolf was very proud of the fact that she only clenched her fists and rolled her eyes at the human woman's appearance. "My people say Marcel is on the move, and he's bringing friends."

Klaus turns to Khalia and Elijah before rushing away. "You two get Hayley to safety."

Normally, Khalia would be the first one to volunteer for a fight, but right now, she just wants to keep Hayley safe. Elijah walks over to Hayley and Khalia. When Khalia takes the werewolf's hand in her own, Elijah speaks up. "Come let's go."

"No." Hayley denied, and then did the hardest thing she's ever done in her life. She pulled her hand away from Khalia's. Swallowing past her own hurt and purposefully ignoring the hurt that flashed on Khalia's face, she gestures to Genevieve. "Some needs to watch her."

"Can't you ever do as you're told, sweetheart?" Khalia's voice was laced with some annoyance as she ignored the hurt stabbing her heart. Why did it hurt so much when Hayley pulled her hand away?

Francesca looked at Elijah and Khalia. "You should help Klaus. My brothers and their security detail won't be much against a vampire army. I'll stay with Hayley."

"That would be more reassuring if I trusted you." Khalia shot with a glare in the human's direction. Francesca clenched her fists and swallowed down the bitterness in her chest.

"Go." Hayley urges them both, taking turns to look both the Mikaelson's in the eye. "And don't hold back."

They reluctantly agree to this plan. Khalia turns to Genevieve and Francesca.

"If something happens to Hayley, I will kill you two first." Khalia swore. Elijah nods his agreement and leaves to help Klaus. Khalia moves to follow, but was stopped by a grip on her wrist. She turned back to Hayley with eyebrows raised in question.

Now or never, Hayley thinks to herself as she makes her choice, her stomach fluttering with nerves and anticipation as she pulls Khalia closer by the neck and kisses her firmly on the mouth. Startled, Khalia pulls back.

"For luck." Hayley blurted, cheeks flaming.

Still dumbstruck and thrown completely off kilter by the unexpected kiss, Khalia could barely do more than stare at her. She nods silently, lips tingling from the kiss, her soul burning as if it was suddenly alive, almost as if Hayley had branded and claimed Khalia's heart, mind, body and soul as hers with a single kiss. Then she turns away from Hayley. Khalia barely made it to the doorway before turning back to Hayley, who looked so positively tempting with her full green eyes and red lips as bit down on the bottom one, that it surely must have been some kind of sin.

Khalia caved quicker than a house of cards. She crossed the distance between them quickly, getting so close to Hayley that there was almost no space left between them. Then she cupped one of her cheeks and kissed Hayley thoroughly, the simmering fire that was always between them turning into a blazing inferno of passion and want, branding and claiming Hayley's heart, mind, body and soul in return. The vampire curled an arm around Hayley's waist to pull her closer and eliminate the last air gaps between them, mindful of her baby bump. Blood rushed through their veins, hearts tried to beat out of their confinement.

Khalia pulled away, not wanting to but having just enough sense left to remember that she is supposed to be helping her brother's fight against Marcel and his army. Both of them were gasping for breath. "That's how you kiss a girl, sweetheart."

With a whoosh of air, Khalia was gone, leaving behind a dazed Hayley that was unsteady on her legs, but incomprehensibly blissful.

Downstairs, Khalia speeds into the courtyard, lips kiss swollen and cheeks stained red. Francesca's brothers and their security guards are aiming guns at the vampires who are standing every direction. She joins Klaus and Elijah in the center of the room, vampires surrounding them on all sides. Her brother's was glaring up at Marcel, who spared a glance at Khalia before speeding away.

Elijah turned to Klaus, his voice matter of fact. "If you don't kill him, I will."

"He's mine. This won't take long." Klaus promised and then he vamp-speeds away, leaving Elijah and Khalia with the rest of the vampires. Elijah confidently unbuttons his jacket as Khalia smirks darkly.

"This is going to be fun." She clapped her hands gleefully.

Elijah smiles at them. "Gentleman." He holds his arms wide. "Shall we?"

Vampires start jumping down from the balconies and lunge for them, and Elijah jumps into battle-mode and starts fighting. Khalia decides to make this a bit more fun, dancing out of reach of one vampire, only to rip out the heart of another. She leaps away from a clearly angry vampire and takes the head clean off one that came at her with a stake.

Elijah and Khalia is continuing to fiercely fight against all of the vampires, and despite being severely outnumbered, the two siblings are still winning the fight. Many of the vampires try to stake him with regular wooden stakes, but he simply steals them and uses the stakes on them. Khalia was clearly in her element as she ripped off heads and removed hearts. Unlike her brother, she didn't mind getting messy when fighting.

Khalia spotted a vampire jumping on her brother's back and a snarl ripped from her mouth. She sped forward and ripped him away from her brother, snapping his neck and dropping his body to the ground. Elijah turned to her in surprise. She gave him a quick smile, "I got you, big brother." Then she was gone and fighting again.

Eventually, the vampires that made up the so called army are all defeated. The fountain in the courtyard is full of blood. Elijah paces around the room at all of the severely injured and dead vampires lying around the room, Khalia lounging on the rim of the fountain.

"Is it wrong that I'm insulted that there this is it? That this is the army Marcel thought could defeat us?" Khalia asked her brother, looking up at her brother with a devilish grin.

"Are we done?" Elijah asked, looking around and clearly bored. Diego lurks in the corner, injured but braced for another fight.

Francesca enters the room, clearly pleased. "Well, nice job! Saved me the trouble of killing all these vampires myself!"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Khalia snarled as she shot to her feet. She didn't get an answer. Elijah looks at Francesca, confused, and is overwhelmed by two of Francesca's brothers, who viciously bite his neck. Her three remaining brother's goes for Khalia - who very nearly escapes their grasp before the venom starts to take effect.

Diego stares in horror at the Correas, realizing that they've finished the moonlight rings. Elijah and Khalia is finally dropped onto the ground. The dark skinned vampire is terrified. "RUN!" All of the wounded vampires who can still run do so.

"Kill as many of them as you can." Francesca ordered her brothers. The newly-turned werewolves rush around and attack all of the vampires that they can get their hands on. Before Diego can get away, one of the brothers finds him and latches onto his neck.

"Such a shame you rejected me, Khalia. We could have ruled this city together, but you had to choose her." Francesca remembered their shared kiss earlier, which was right in front of her, and snarled the word 'her' with such distaste that fear for Hayley's life seared through the shards of Khalia's heart, for a brief moment overpowering the pain of the werewolf venom. The female Original tried to get up, rolling to her side, then pushing her up by herself palms.

Khalia coughed violently, arms almost giving in, the venom spreading through her veins, quicker and quicker. "You lay a finger on Hayley, and there is not a place on this earth you can hide where I won't find you. These werewolf bites won't hold me down forever and it most certainly will not kill me. I am not my brothers, I don't make deals, I can't be persuaded - I kill, viciously and without mercy. And if you hurt my sweetheart, I will hunt you down like the dog you are."

"You should have just accepted my offer." Francesca said with a regret filled smirk and then started to walk out of the Compound, her brother's in tow. Khalia tries to follow, but just as she gets to her feet, her quivering legs give out once more. She crawls over to her brother and starts slapping his cheek to get him into consciousness.

"Khalia?" He slurred, bleary eyed.

"You need to get up, we need to find Hayley." Khalia told him, not even trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

Together, the two Originals staggered to their feet, fighting the venom every step they walked. When they reached the room where Hayley and Genevieve was supposed to be and it was empty, Khalia felt like the world was going to come crashing down on her any moment.

Then came the anger, the complete and utter fury - so powerful that the for a moment, it was hard to see straight. She clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turning white, the force of her anger over-powering the pain and the adrenaline wiping out any of weakening effects of the venom.

Downstairs, they heard Marcel arriving and clearing mourning his dead vampires. The brother-sister duo exchanged a glance. Still not up to full capacity, the two ran down the stairs where they normally would have used their vampire speed.

"MARCEL! WHERE IS SHE?" Elijah was clearly as enraged as his sister, but was much worse at hiding it than she was. Evident in how he throws a chair in anger, and Cami throws herself protectively between Marcel and Elijah. "Where's Hayley?"

"He doesn't have her! Please! I know you don't trust him, but you know I wouldn't lie. He doesn't have her." Cami tried to convince them, looking back and forth between the two Mikaelson's, focusing mainly on Elijah because she didn't really know the female Original.

"I believe you." Khalia said, surprising everyone. "I may not know you or trust you, but my extremely paranoid brother Klaus does, so for right now, your word will have to do." Khalia pulled at her anger and held onto it tightly. If she lost that wildfire of rage that was fueling her, and she lets herself think of the worst possible scenario's, then she would spin out of control.

"Someone does." Elijah said, sounding as miserable as Khalia felt. He walks over to Marcel. "Where is my brother?"

"I left him in the street. He was gonna kill me. And then he got jacked up by some witch's spell." Marcel informs them. He starts to pant, clearly weak from the hybrid bite and the fight from earlier.

"How bad was it? The spell, I mean." Khalia asked the younger vampire.

"I don't know. Like I said, he was trying to kill me. I wasn't about to stick around and wait for him to recover and finish the job." Marcel still found the energy to snark at the Original.

"Fair enough." Khalia conceded with a half shrug. "But if anything happens to my brother because of that spell, I will finish the job."

Elijah was furious as he came to the only possible conclusion, "Genevieve."

"Whatever else may happen tonight, I'm killing that fucking witch." Khalia swore threateningly, but it lacked the normal hostility. Other emotions started creeping through the fire of her rage, worry and concern knotting her stomach and squeezing her heart painfully. Where are you sweetheart?

***

AUTHOR'S NOTE

there's your kiss! happy now? i hope it made you happy or squeal or squeak or scream or whatever it is you guys do when you're happy.

did it make up for a the suffering i put khalia through??

personally, i can't believe it took me 42 chapters, but oh well, i hope it was worth the wait.

-Mixie