Esmeray spent the entire day preparing.

She was woken up early and driven by Greta and Maddox to the site where the spell would take place. They gave her all the materials and instructed her to get the grounds ready.

After several spells and moving around the different herbs, rocks, and pieces of wood needed, Esmeray prepared the altar. She had set up a passageway of fire and three circles as needed for the sacrifices. The altar was lined with jagged rocks to hold a torch and a bowl for the blood that would be part of the ritual. In order to set herself up as the presiding witch, she cut into her hand with a blade and dripped some of the blood onto the ground, chanting quietly and marking the land for the spell she'd be performing.

Greta arrived as evening was already settling in. "Drink this," she told her, giving her a foul smelling concoction that had herbs Esmeray hadn't ever used in spells. The hybrid drank it, gagging and forcing it down her throat. It burned, and as soon as she finished it, Greta put her hands on her forehead and began to hum before chanting lowly, preparing to slow down her transformation enough for the ritual to be done.

"Perfect," the woman said. "I'll return with the vampire first. We need to turn her and you can use a spell to speed up the transition. She'll need to drink your blood."

Esmeray frowned. "I was under the impression that you were sacrificing Katherine."

"We were going to, but Klaus has different plans. Unfortunately, the vampire and wolf we had ready were rescued. Maddox is dead. We had to resort to our backups."

The hybrid could not ask anymore questions, because Greta walked off without another word to her, walking between the flames on the ground and disappearing through the trees.

When she returned, she had with her Jenna Sommers, who looked incredibly afraid. Esmeray immediately felt guilty when Jenna turned to face her. "Victoria," she said shakily. "What's going on?"

"She's ingested the blood," said Greta, shoving Jenna forward. "Kill her."

Esmeray knew this was a test. She looked at the innocent face of Elena's aunt and a pang in her heart made her entire body ache as she gulped, reached her hand up, and flicked it, snapping the woman's neck and sending her to the ground.

Greta smirked. "You hardly hesitated. Klaus will be pleased."

"I'll speed up her transition," she mumbled quietly. "Where are you off to now?"

"To get the doppelgänger," said Greta. "I'll be back in fifteen minutes. Make sure she's waking up by then."

Esmeray nodded, and went to Jenna, kneeling beside her. She put her hand on her forehead, guilt flooding through her. "I'm sorry," the hybrid whispered as soon as Greta was out of earshot. "I didn't know they were going to go for you. You were kind to me."

Closing her eyes, she began to whisper, trying to lessen the time that Jenna was dead. By the time Elena showed up, she would be awake again, though it would not last long. She'd be a vampire for less than a few hours before dying permanently.

It was completely dark by the time Greta came up, dragging Elena with her. The young girl instantly fixated on the two figures ahead of her. "Jenna?" she gasped, seeing her aunt on the floor and running toward her. "Jenna!" She snapped her head up to look at Esmeray, who was sitting on the floor beside the woman. "What did you do to her?"

"She's in transition," she said simply. She flicked both of her wrists, and Jenna gasped, sitting up and clutching her temples in pain.

"Oh, my head," she groaned, looking at Elena in shock. "What's wrong with me?"

"Do you remember what happened?" Elena asked urgently.

"You called me," she mumbled. "You were so scared... oh. I should have realized that it wasn't you. The second I walked out of the house, someone grabbed me. A vampire."

"Klaus," muttered Elena hatefully. "It was Klaus."

"He made me drink his blood. He took me to her." She looked at Greta. "Then she brought me here... and you..." she looked at Esmeray this time. "You killed me."

"I had to," Esmeray told her simply.

Elena pursed her lips, looking furious with Esmeray, but instead of yelling at her, she pretended she wasn't there and gave all her attention to her aunt. "Jenna, do you remember...When I told you how someone becomes a vampire?"

Jenna nodded. "Yeah, if you die with vampire blood in your system..." she stared at Esmeray in shock. "You... you made me a vampire?"

"Technically Klaus did," she muttered, taking the knife and cutting into her palm, offering it to her. Elena immediately made to push her hand away, but with ease, Esmeray swiped her hand out and sent Elena flying off to the side, landing inside of one of the circles. As soon as she was within it, flames lit around the circumference to keep her from getting out. The hybrid thrust her hand in front of Jenna and pushed her head forward so that she would feed, despite Elena's screams of protest.

Instantly, Jenna's eyes became red, and her fangs came out as she bit into Esmeray's hand further, feeding until she felt satisfied. When she'd had enough, Esmeray flicked her wrist again, sending Jenna into the circle beside Elena's, another ring of fire trapping her inside of it.

"I've got to go retrieve the wolf," announced Greta before beginning to walk away. Esmeray nodded and moved back to the altar, taking the rag she had prepared and holding it against her hand to stop the bleeding.

"Esmeray, please," begged Elena. "Let us go."

"No," she said simply. "I have to go through with it."

"You don't! Please— Jenna's going to die."

"Then she's going to die," muttered Esmeray, not letting guilt flood her mind anymore.

"You know this is wrong! You know she's innocent!"

"It's not my fault Klaus chose her, I didn't have a say in it!" Esmeray snapped abruptly, tired of her whining. "If your friends hadn't meddled, we wouldn't have needed to use her."

Elena flinched. "What did he promise you?"

"He's going to help me do something that will give me full control of my powers," she said coldly, facing away from the two women. "I'm not backing down. Be grateful you get to live. If I wasn't doing this, you'd be dying."

"Jennaa doesn't deserve this!"

"Don't make me spell your mouth shut!" sneered Esmeray. "I know that. But after tonight, I never again have to go through immense pain just to turn into a wolf. If it makes you feel any better, I can do a spell to ensure she will find peace after her death."

The hybrid tuned out Elena's whining when she started trying to reason with her again. Seriously, this girl had to understand that not everything could go her way. Esmeray knew that it was cruel, she knew it was immoral, and yet she wasn't about to throw it all away for a woman she barely knew. She wanted her freedom and this was the way to acquire it.

Greta returned not long after with a blonde woman— the werewolf. Esmeray had to pretend they weren't kin in a sense, to minimize any sadness at the prospect of watching her be killed. The witch shoved her into the third circle, lighting the fire and coming over to stand beside Esmeray.

Once again, Elena seemed to want to convince them that this was wrong. "Greta, witches are supposed to maintain the balance in nature. It's your duty to them to keep this curse sealed."

Greta looked at her like she was stupid. She could care less about balance in nature. "My duty is to Klaus! The new order."

"Glad to know I still have a dance partner."

Esmeray looked up and saw Klaus had arrived. "Hello, my lovelies," he told the women in the rings. "Are we ready?"

The women, of course, didn't answer him. Klaus moved forward, retrieving the moonstone from his pocket. "I've got the moonstone," he muttered, gazing down at it. "I spent five hundred years looking for this. I hate to part with it."

He passed it to Greta, who gave it to Esmeray. "The moon has passed its apex," said the witch, looking admirably at Klaus. "Remember everything you need to do?"

"I remember," he confirmed. Esmeray took this as a signal to get started.

Taking some of the herbs, she dropped them into the bowl in front of her, then lit it on fire. She dropped the moonstone in it and began to chant, "Phasmatos Tribum, Salve Sorce Das. Phasmatos Eliximo Nominum, Etrinox Sorce Sotero Callux Oxtara."

Klaus moved toward the woman who had recently arrived. While Esmeray chanted, she wove her hand to extinguish the flames around the blonde. The woman tried to launch herself at Klaus to take him down, but with ease, he pinned her onto the ground, plunged his hand into her chest, and tore out her heart, making both Jenna and Elena let out soft screams. The werewolf gasped, tears streaming down her face, and went limp.

Klaus held the heart in his hand, coming over to Esmeray and holding the organ over the bowl, letting the blood drip onto the now destroyed moonstone. She continued to chant, and the flames flared up briefly.

"Does that mean it's working?" he asked her.

She nodded, and chanted louder, "Phasmatos Tribum, Salve Sorce Das. Phasmatos Eliximo Nominum, Etrinox Sorce Sotero Callux Oxtara."

Klaus's face twitched, as if he had felt a sudden pain. He was a third of the way unbound. He moved to the vampire. "Hello, Jenna," he said with fake politeness.

"Let her go," begged Elena. "She doesn't deserve to die!" She moved closer to the flames, which made them flare up, keeping her from getting closer to her aunt.

"Elena, don't," said Jenna softly, not wanting her to get hurt.

"No, Jenna!" she cried. "Jeremy and I still need you..."

Klaus had taken a pause from focusing on Jenna. He looked toward the top of the quarry, and Esmeray turned, able to see that a figure was standing above, looking down at them. With impressive speed, Klaus was suddenly beside the man.

"Ignore them," instructed Greta. "Continue."

Esmeray pursed her lips and obeyed. "Phasmatos Tribum, Salve Sorce Das. Phasmatos Eliximo Nominum, Etrinox Sorce Sotero Callux Oxtara."

It seemed the man— Stefan Salvatore— was trying to strike a deal which Klaus didn't like. Within a few minutes, he had brought him down almost as a witness to the rest of the ritual. "Quite the predicament," said Klaus, and in that moment, Esmeray understood that Stefan was trying to take Jenna's place. "You know, it's funny, all this talk about preserving family, and here's Stefan, granting your wish."

Elena cast him a sad look. "Stefan..."

"It's okay," he told her gently.

"Well," said Klaus, holding up a stake and pointing it between Jenna and Stefan. "Who's it going to be, Elena?"

The doppelgänger shook her head. "No."

Klaus smirked. "Oh, don't worry. There's actually no choice." He lunged at Stefan, staking him in the back and making him yell out in pain as he sank to the ground, which elicited a panicked scream from Elena. Klaus broke off the main piece of the stake, though still leaving a substantially large chunk of wood in Stefan's back. "I have other plans for your boyfriend. I want him alive. But for now..." he snapped his neck and let him fall carelessly on the ground. "Whenever you're ready, my little werewitch."

Esmeray gulped, and wove her hand to extinguish the flames around Jenna. "Phasmatos Tribum, Salve Sorce Das. Phasmatos Eliximo Nominum, Etrinox Sorce Sotero Callux Oxtara..."

Suddenly, Jenna was speeding toward her. Had it been Greta doing the spell, surely she wouldn't have reacted fast enough. Esmeray shot her hand out, freezing the woman in place, and with another flick of her fingers, she slammed her down onto the ground beside the altar, as if Jenna was the other half of a powerful magnet embedded in the earth.

"Jenna, no!" Elena screamed as Klaus sped over to Jenna, ready to kill her. She started to sob as Jenna looked at her in desperation. "J-Just turn it off, Jenna. Turn it off... y-you won't be scared anymore."

It seemed that Jenna listened. As Klaus drove the stake through her heart, she didn't look frightened in the slightest. Her body turned grey, decayed veins sweeping over her.

Klaus yanked the stake out again and came to the bowl, letting Jenna's blood drip into it as he hovered the piece of wood above it. The flames flared up once more, and Klaus gave another more visible wince before going straight for Elena, who was still crying uncontrollably. Esmeray let the rest of the flames die out, and Klaus yanked Elena forward, bringing her to the altar. The girl tried to keep her eyes off of Jenna's body, her face still stained with tears. Klaus lifted her arm, biting into it hard and feeding for only a moment before thrusting her wrist out and letting her blood drip into the flames.

Greta came to Esmeray and put her hands on her temples. Klaus looked into her eyes, and he registered the sudden fear that the hybrid felt, realizing that after a thousand years of rest, she would have yet another excruciatingly painful transformation.

"You'll start to turn when she does," said Greta before mumbling the spell to stop halting Esmeray's transformation.

Everything that happened afterward seemed like a blur. Esmeray let out a high-pitched and agonized scream, clutching her head and dropping to the floor. Her body lurched back, landing on the dirt, and she started to twitch, her bones beginning to break one by one to accommodate her wolf body.

"I can feel it," she heard Klaus say, though his voice sounded distorted. "It's happening." There was a loud snapping as his bones began to crack in time with Esmeray's. With every scream she gave, two of his bones seemed to crack, the pace of his transformation going much quicker than hers.

She hated it. She didn't know why her body seemed to want only twenty five of her bones to break every hour— no more, no less. It left her sobbing and begging for release for over seven hours, wishing that her wolf form could come along easier.

It never did. Time and time again, her Pack had done everything it could to make the process simpler. They gave her herbal concoctions and casted spells, but in that time, nothing could delay the inevitable. It was slow and terrible. She tried to just let it happen, she tried to let the pain overtake her because she knew she could handle it, and even that strategy was worthless. Her witch nature hated letting her feel free. It despised her wolf half and did everything to keep her from exploring it the way she should have been able to since the day she triggered her curse.

She heard another voice, but she was too busy trying to help her bones break to realize who it was. The wind howled like a tornado around her, and no matter how hard she tried to help the process along, it was all a futile attempt. She whimpered as she felt her fingers breaking, one by one, and looked up despite her vision being blurred. Greta was lying not far from her, and the stench of blood let her know she'd been killed. Thunder crashed everywhere and Esmeray felt cold, hungry, tired, and as if she was being burned alive.

Then, she saw a familiar face, and through her tears, she fixated on it, thinking he was there to help her. Elijah. He was about to kill Klaus, this was it...

And then suddenly, he was gone. They were all gone. Klaus and Elijah had disappeared first. Elena, Stefan, Damon, and Bonnie had followed along, with Jenna's body, heading in another direction. Esmeray was left behind, likely because the others had no idea that she wasn't going to hurt them. She couldn't. Her bite might be lethal to vampires, but it wasn't like she could bite them anytime soon, and even once she turned, she'd hardly be able to move.

This was the first time Esmeray had been completely alone during a transformation. In the past, her father had been beside her, in his wolf form, and her mother had resided between the both of them, stroking her daughter's hair and whispering soothing words to try and lessen her pain.

"I'm here, Tori," she whispered as Esmeray gasped and thrashed around, more of her bones breaking. "Just breathe. It's going to be okay..."

For nine hours, she was left suffering without any comfort. Every new bone that broke brought more tears to her eyes. Her throat felt raw from how many screams and sobs she'd let out. It was easily the most extreme pain Esmeray had ever felt, and every month since she had triggered her curse, it was the same nightmare over and over again. No matter how much she tried to breathe and let it happen, the transformation never happened any faster.

"You have to master your mind, Ray," her father had told her. "It'll make it smoother. Your mind has to be strong, it has to understand that this is the natural order and you must turn. Don't let your inner witch beat your wolf to a pulp. This pain will be temporary. You have yet to run... to feel the wind whipping against your fur as you jump... to be thrilled with the freedom that comes from being a wolf. Tell yourself it'll be over soon. Help yourself by breaking your bones off your own accord."

She had done her absolute best to put his advice to work, and it had never amounted to anything. The only thing that could possibly help her was the ritual that Klaus had promised he'd help her with. Now, it seemed she had been played for a fool.

When Esmeray finally felt that she was in her wolf form, she forced herself to try and stand. Her legs wobbled and she sank back to the floor, panting and turning onto her side. It was as though she'd just ran a marathon and could only hope to rest. She went unconscious, her mind bringing up memories for comfort.

"Princess Poldark!"

One of the boys from the village had come to her tent two days after the full moon, when Esmeray had finally woken up. She had still been quite fragile, and the sound of his voice made her flinch. Despite him not having spoken so loud, it came off as though he was yelling.

"Come and look at her, Nodin!" the boy yelled, taking advantage of the fact that Esmeray's parents weren't there. "She looks like she's almost dead!"

"P-Please, g-go a-away," she stammered, covering her ears.

The boy named Nodin burst through, looking maliciously at her. "She looks like a ghost, Kele. What's wrong, Princess Poldark, too weak?"

"S-Stop," she pleaded. "I f-feel s-sick..."

"You're supposed to be stronger than the Pack members yet here you are, looking pitiful. Pitiful Princess Poldark."

"Stop c-calling me t-that!" she gasped, trying to get up, though she immediately crumpled to the floor.

Nodin and Kele roared with laughter, running back out. "Princess Poldark fell! Mika, come see!"

They had brought in yet another boy. They adored making fun of her. To them, her pain was amusing, and it let them feel that they were superior. They called her 'princess' to rub in the fact that she could never be Alpha. Her father was essentially the king, but she would never be able to succeed him in her condition.

The first time Esmeray awoke, she was still in her wolf form. With a grunt, she forced herself to her feet once again, and tried to concentrate on coming back into her human form. This seemed almost harder. She held her paw up, looking at it and imagining how her hand normally looked. It did nothing. She whined and pawed weakly at the dirt, but there was no way for her to turn back. Thus, she had to do what she normally did: go back to sleep and hope that when she woke up, she'd be human again.

This was usually when she slept the most. She could be nearly comatose for almost forty-eight hours after waking up in her wolf form once morning had hit.

"Tori," her mother had cooed, two days after her first full moon as a wolf. "How do you feel?"

The minimal light in the tent burned into her retinas, and she hissed. Esmeralda moved to close the flaps for her daughter, coming over and helping her to sit up. "It's alright," she said soothingly. "You're human again."

"Mama," she whispered, blinking several times before she could see her clearly. "I don't remember... what happened?"

Esmeralda pursed her lips. "You were unable to move around, my darling. Your father and I waited at your side, but you didn't manage to move. We'll try to get better at it for next month, alright?"

Esmeray stared at her blankly. "What do I look like?" she inquired. "When... I'm a wolf."

The woman caressed her daughter's face. "You look so beautiful and strong," she told her. "Black as the night with eyes that shine like gold in the moonlight, just like your father. You two look exactly alike, except he has some gray hairs on his wolf already."

Esmeray wished she really looked strong. She must have looked like the wimpiest wolf in the history of werewolves. This was her thirteenth full moon, and even now, she was just as weak as always.

It was two days later when Esmeray woke up, still on the ground of the quarry. Her clothes were ripped to shreds beside her, and she was completely naked. Someone had taken Greta's body, but they hadn't cared to provide Esmeray with any clothes to wear after she turned back into a human.

Cursing loudly, she shakily got to her feet. She grabbed at her ripped shirt and tied it over her breasts as a very trashy looking bra top. Her pants were in worse condition, and her undergarments were unable to be used at all. She did her best tying her pants as a sort of skirt around her, and she limped toward the forest, hoping that she would find someone helpful soon.

She felt angry. Klaus and Elijah had abandoned her here. She had expected better from the elder Mikaelson brother. Surely he had seen that she was there. Klaus, perhaps, she never should have trusted, even slightly. Of course he wouldn't actually want to help her with her ritual. He had more control over her when pretending he was going to give her something she wanted.

It felt as though she walked for miles before she found a large house. On her way there, she had already left her path marked with destruction. Her lingering soreness and anger had the ground trembling beneath her feet. A tree had fallen beside her, emitting a loud crash as it sent splinters and dirt into the air. She'd started a small fire in the bushes without meaning to, and had quickly put it out. Several birds dropped dead in front of her, and she had to step over them to move along. The ground had exploded at one point, unearthing several acorns that a squirrel must have buried there not long ago.

The Salvatore Boarding House was not the place she expected to arrive at, but it was the closest thing, and she needed to get cleaned up. Her hand shook as she knocked on the door, and a very surprised Stefan opened up for her.

"Esmeray," he said, seeing the state she was in and frowning in concern.

She sniffled, tears starting to pool in her eyes, making the lights inside of the house flicker. "C-Can I j-just g-get some c-clothes?" she managed weakly. "P-Please?"

Stefan had called over Caroline Forbes to help her out. Apparently, some trouble seemed to be brewing, because Damon was nowhere to be found. The blonde vampire was incredibly kind and understanding, helping Esmeray use one of the showers in the guest room and bringing her some clothes to wear. The vampire ignored all the random objects flying across the room, listening to Esmeray sobbing as she cleaned herself up, feeling miserable and betrayed. When she heard the water running for a suspiciously long time, she peeked in, and found Esmeray crouched on the shower floor, covering her face and shaking her head over and over again.

By the time she was calm enough to speak to them, she learned that Stefan was gone, Elijah was daggered, and Damon had nearly died of a werewolf bite.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to Elena, Bonnie, Damon, and Caroline as they sat with her in the living room of the Boarding House. "I... I thought... I thought Klaus was going to help me... I thought he'd repay me for my help..."

Elena was clearly not all that chuffed about being kind to her, but she gave her a reassuring look. "He tricked you. It... happens."

"Stay here as long as you need to, Ding-a-Ling Wolf," offered Damon, getting up and plucking up a bottle of bourbon. "No one in Mystic Falls wants a teething hybrid wrecking the place because she's homeless."

"Thank you," she said quietly as Bonnie and Caroline offered to lead her to the room that had been prepared for her.

As she lay in her new bed that night, staring at the ceiling, she felt only one thing: a desire for revenge.

She wanted to kill Klaus Mikaelson.