(CHAPTER EIGHT :
THE IMPROVED CHARLOTTE)

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SMUDGED LIPSTICK, RUNNY MASCARA. In an unfamiliar bed with my make-up smeared, I jumped to one conclusion—a rather unappealing one at that. Groggily, I rolled onto my side and exhaled in relief when I discovered there was nobody else in the bed. Grateful, I returned to my initial position, yelping loudly as I found my face to be inches away from that of an Original's vampire. He definitely wasn't there a moment ago.

Kol, in all his morning glory, slyly stretched his arm out, letting it settle comfortably over my waist. "Awake at last, darling?" He mused, no doubt hearing how my malfunctioning heart skipped a beat when he touched me. It was out of my control, my heart was going wild near him. In my defence, there wasn't an appropriate way to react to waking up across from him after one hundred and three years apart.

"Maybe." I responded after a prolonged pause, dry on sarcastic remarks for once. "What the Hell even hap——" I clutched my head and pieced together the events of the previous night. "Wait, you snapped my neck. Oh my God, you asshole. You snapped my neck, hauled my unconscious body to your bedroom and thought what exactly? I would wake up and fawn over the love of my life? I would have hot vampire sex with you to express my gratitude?" I accused, wriggling out from under his arms and stumbling to my feet. Immediately, I missed his warm touch, but would never admit to that out loud.

"You called me the love of your life." He teased. As a smug smirk tugged at the corners of his lips, he sprawled his body out across the bed.

"Really, Kol? Is that the only part you managed to catch onto?" I managed to splutter after failing to force out a message of denial. Word vomit, it made me call him the 'love of my life' and I would stand by that. "Did your selective hearing blank out the part where you took me hostage? You don't get a girl in bed with you by dragging her unconscious body to said bed. And it is pretty illegal." I chastised, falling back into my usual ways of sarcasm and satire. To begin with, I was thrown by the new environment and old flame, but I quickly adapted. In the world of the supernatural, the number one rule was 'adapt to survive.'

With an almost inaudible grumble, the vampire tossed a pillow in my direction, his advanced reflexes meaning the typically soft item quite literally knocked the window out of me. "Cry me a river, darling." Kol moaned. "You weren't the only one with a broken neck, that bloody Salvatore got mine too. Elijah must have brought us both here." He concluded, snapping his fingers.

I sucked the air in between my teeth. "Ooh, that is shameful. An Original being defeated by a vampire one tenth of his age." I taunted. "I'm surprised his corpse isn't in the room somewhere." I leisurely strolled around the bedroom, searching for a dismembered Damon Salvatore.

"Your faith in me is outstanding." He complimented falsely, drawing out the adjective. "But, as the respectful bloke I am, I wanted to abide by my Mother's 'no death on our family's account' rule. If I wanted the Salvatore dead, rest assured, he would be dead by now." Kol defended with a stone face, protective over the reputation he had built up over the millennium. He spared Damon and if I viewed that as an act of cowardice, he would no doubt kill him to prove a point.

Accidentally, a series of laughs—bubbly and vibrant as ever—slipped from my lips. "Kol Mikaelson following rules? Never." I denied, but didn't press on the subject more. If Damon was alive, I didn't want to test the hot-headed Mikaelson.

"You know me too well." Playfully, he winked as he pounced up from his sprawled out position. "As I am sure you also know, I get extremely thirsty after such a careless neck snap." Raising a lone suggestive eyebrow, the man dropped a blatant hint. However, I would not be joining him on a murder spree anytime soon—that lifestyle deserved to remain buried deep in my dark past.

Flickering around the room, my eyes wandered everywhere except on him. "Hm, Klaus has servants on tap downstairs or feel free to massacre a nearby village, I don't care." I mentioned casually whilst I stared at my nails with great interest. I wouldn't be accompanying him and I didn't care what he did, honestly. "I would join you, but I have more important things to do today. Like floss my teeth." I remarked, throwing open the bedroom door and preparing to take a quick, smooth exit.

Kol slammed the door shut again. "I don't believe you." He said sharply, blocking the doorway. "I know you, Charlotte, and I can recognise when you're lying." Glaring in my direction, the vampire hid the concern rooted beneath his words by snarling them.

"You knew Charlotte Hatton." I sighed, knowing that he never saw me around blood, he never witnessed the reckless, destructive tendencies I held. "I'm Lottie now, a vampire with blood lust issues. Sorry to disappoint." I finished firmly, zooming out of the room the exact moment the man in front of me dropped his guard.

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NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK [1912]

Damon Salvatore propped one leg up on the oak coffee table, lazily unfolding the newspaper from today. "Hmm, look at that that, another body." He feigned shock, slamming his pointer finger at the double spread article. "Hanging from the doorframe of Prezzo's Pizzeria, a body of a young, unidentified male was found by a local. According to the report, his body was displayed through the use of a fraying rope and his throat had been slit with a butcher's knife—an action that was believed to have been performed after the victim bled out. There were notable signs of struggle and, unexplainably, two puncture wounds that were found underneath the clean cut around his neck." He stopped reading at that point, shaking his head. "Signs of struggle, fang marks. Fangs marks, Lottie. If you continue to be this sloppy, you'll expose us to the world. Go ahead, do what you want, but I won't be a happy man if I can't get a snack because humans start walking around with wooden stakes and vervain." He lectured, always attempting to be a mentor to me. Not that I listened most of the time, he was not a golden vampire and I would certainly not be taking his advice.

"Don't scold me, Salvatore." I clenched my fist into a ball. "I'm not dimwitted like you, I know what I did. I am well aware they struggled and I relished in that struggle. All that power I held at my fingertips, acting as the fragile thread that rested between life and death for a moment—mmm, it was delectable. Even better, they thought they stood a chance, but I knew better. No matter how hard he fought——" I dropped my voice to that of a hushed tone. "——I would always be superior." I finalised, replaying that most satisfying kill.

He pursed his lips, not speaking up. Shrugging my shoulders, I accepted that to be a cue to leave and possibly get another snack. However, that didn't suit the other vampire with him snatching my forearm before I could walk away. Promptly, he thrusted me against the wall, pinning me still with one hand.

I growled at him. "Let me go." I managed to wheeze out, his hand currently crushing a vital mechanism in my undead body.

"No, we're having an intervention." He informed me bluntly. "Right now." He added, applying more pressure to my neck, but I didn't crack. Not for a singular second.

"Maybe I don't want an intervention. And if I don't want one, we aren't going to be having one. After all, you're weaker than me." I patronised. "Sure, you're older, but that means nothing when you have pesky, little emotions. You care, Damon, and that will always give me the advantage over you because I am very much willing to hurt the people you care about." I divulged, spitting each word off of my tongue. "On the other hand, I don't care. Never will. And that makes me untouchable, meaning you can't hurt me, ergo, I win." I continued, oozing cockiness as I fearlessly took on the man that placed me in a rather uncomfortable position

"Oh, I'll take that as a challenge." He released my body, letting it fall with a thump. "Let's see how long it will take for you to start caring when I'm torturing you." Damon threatened, hissing like a snake.

I remained neutral, a blank expression on my face. Ever since I made my first kill, I had my humanity switched off. During my first kill, there was this gratifying and euphoric state of bliss coursing through my body. Following that came the crushing guilt, one emotion that made the beauty of the kill taste sour. With that, I willed myself to not care and it worked. Damon—who had found my a couple of years deep into my spiral—failed at sparking my emotions again. Four massacres later, he learnt that I had no chance of redemption, but stayed at my side anyway. Always grumbling about not supporting his brother and now he was stuck with me.

Leaning closer to the man, I licked my lips. "Kinky, I like it." I whispered, accepting his proposal.

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Halting, I forced myself to a stop outside the Salvatore Boarding House. Since leaving Kol, I became flustered and needed to compose myself again. Inhale, exhale. "Boys," I called, stuffing my voice with all the arrogance I could muster. "Your favourite girl is back." I announced, strutting through the doors with a hand on my hip. If I appeared bold, they'd never figure out that something wasn't quite right.

"Elena, are you here?" Damon hummed mockingly, walking through to the main entrance. "It's you, I thought you said it was our favourite girl." He rolled his eyes, snickering to himself a little.

Slapping a hand against my chest, I feigned offence. Bumping shoulders with the man, I returned his eye roll and headed towards the kitchen. Funnily enough, I often got thirsty post neck snap, but I couldn't resort to the same means as Kol. Whereas he went for the vein, I opted for blood bags. It was easier to control myself that way.

In the corner of my eye, a glimmer of silver captured my attention. "Is that a dagger?" I did a double-take, turning away from the freezer of blood bags to examine the weapon.

"No, it's a puppy." Damon deadpanned. "Of course it's a dagger, Lottie."

Apparently, I triggered the wrong topic of conversation. Stefan, his brother, furrowed his brows at the sight of the item. "You want to dagger Elijah." He inferred, his tone untraceable to the two of us in the room. Perhaps it was shock, admiration possibly or even disappointment. As far as I was concerned, the younger Salvatore was hard to read.

"Would that be the worst thing?" I posed an innocent, yet honest, question. He had gaping holes in his morals, betrayed Elena at the sacrifice and was not an ally of ours.

"They're all linked. One goes down, they all go down." Damon explained, thinking her had the perfect plan conjured in his mind. But, after observing many of his plans fail, I was reluctant to support his idea. "The witches live, Elena's safe, problem solved." He proceeded after spotting the disapproving glare I had been aiming at him.

"Would that even effect Klaus?" I thought out loud, bringing the fatal flaw in his scheme to his attention.

Momentarily, the man reflected on the valid point before shrugging his shoulders, unbothered. "Ironically, Klaus isn't our current problem." He replied.

Stefan shook his head. "Daggers are lethal to any vampire who uses it." He contributed.

"Well, I just so happen to know someone crazy enough to give it a shot." He countered, already dialling the number of the local vampire hunter, Alaric Saltzman. "And I just so happen to know someone who would be the perfect bait too." Whipping his head towards me, the vampire looked expectant. Not that I was prepared to volunteer, not without negotiating first.

"If I am being warped into one of your little plans, I have two conditions." I declared, deciding it would be smarter to agree on my own terms instead of being guilted into it by my friend. Ever since New York, he held the fact he supported me over my head. "One, I'm not going alone. By doing this, I'm putting my name on the Original's Hit List and won't be on that list alone." I made a 'one' with my finger, pausing before proclaiming the second condition of mine. "And two, we aren't going after Elijah. We're going after Kol." I decided. Once he was daggered, I would be able to forget about his existence. Again.

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A.N: I sucked with daily updates and I am sorry, I'll promise weekly updates at least. I write this chapter that many times and I am still unhappy with it, to be honest. I've been stressing and stress means my writing is a load of crap, but I might fix this chapter when I am less stressed.

Which do you prefer: The Originals or The Vampire Diaries?