My heart was thudding erratically as i stood in the home of Klaus's first hybrid, Tyler Lockwood. Dances weren't my thing, neither were most social gatherings but this one, this homecoming had captured the entirety of my excitement.

I was to be reunited with all i held close tonight.

Klaus had promised it, once his fathers body had been shown and he knew that he was finally safe he would allow me back to Damon. We had been tethered and yet the physical pain would no longer cause us to suffer, meaning we could sit at either end of the world and feel nothing.

I was counting down the minutes until Stefan revealed Mikael's body, living or dead. Waiting for the guests to arrive like an antsy child. I had gone years without Damon, sure, never without being willing to however and we had never left each other on terms that were less then brilliant.

I also feared what could have happened to our mortal friends, after all i never did know how long i was to be gone.

The worries melted like snow as i now stood back in Mystic Fall, hair pinned on top of my head and body fitted in a lovely little dress that i had been gifted. I'd paired it with two thigh holsters to complete my outfit with my beloved blades, ready for anything to come.

Aside from perhaps one person.

"Are you ready?" I debated on turning around and facing him, the hostility had drifted away the moment we had done what the bond demanded we do but something else had built. That connection and possession and want, no matter how much i knew that it wasn't truly me wanting these things....

It did become harder to differentiate between what was forced and what was already there.

"This day means nothing to me." I answered flatly turning to face him finally, his hair had grew over the time we had been away ruffled as he had stressed the night before. Now he stood calm, assured that this homecoming was not that but a funeral instead.

"To you however, it does. So, are you ready?" I asked calmly.

"This day has been a long time coming." Even though Klaus sounded assured in his words, i still felt the lingering worry.

"I fail to see an outcome in which we lose tonight." His eyes flickered with amusement at my words.

"We? Hmm I'd be careful love, don't want to become to attached." He had provoked a smirk to etch onto my face as i tapped the lingering scars on my neck.

"I'd say we are past that. After we end the threat upon our lives we can finally part ways." I mused taking one lone curl from my face and pinning it up with the rest. Klaus remained silent forcing me to look back to him.

I didn't need to feel his dejection, being as i could see it.

"You will let me return to Damon won't you? You promised it..." I continued turning fully back to him. If he had changed his mind, forgotten his promise-

"I am going to let you go love." Klaus's hand dove into his pocket, pulling my phone out. He walked calmly across the room, his steps assured and relaxed before placing it into my hand. He stayed there for a moment.

My breathing faltered when his hand rose to my face, finger skimming the skin of my cheek as he unhooked that one lone curl i had pinned away.

"You should leave it like this, you look stunning." Klaus's hand fell as the curl did, my eyes softening at his own as they followed the movement.

"I think i am going to miss you." He whispered softly.

"It's not you. What your feelings it never been you really." I tried to offer but he only shuck his head with a small chuckle.

"I don't care where it comes from, if this is how it makes me feel." I pitied him in the moment, for being stuck with someone as unloving as me, for being bonded with a monster who couldn't offer eternal love and loyalty.

"But no matter, you will be gone by the end of the night." I debated on reaching out as he turned away but thought against it. This wasn't something i could do, there were no words that i could say or even think of.

"Klaus." I chose to call as he lingered in the door way.

"Good luck." He offered a small smile as he nodded, leaving me to greet the guests down stairs.

When i chose to leave that room the party was in full swing. Students and hybrids mingled and faces familiar and new mixed in the crowds. Women were dressed to please and the men were dressed to drink but over all a sense of looming danger hovered above the crowd.

I spotted Caroline first.

Weaving through the crowds as she found my eyes, she crushed me into a hug the moment she could and i laughed reciprocating it.

"Your here! Your finally back! We need to find Damon, get you out of here before Klaus comes back. He spoke on the stage but we didn't think he had brought you, are you okay are you safe-" I chuckled as she rambled.

"I'm fine for now but if Mikael is awake and has the means to kill Klaus, i will perish with him." Caroline shuck her head frantically.

"He is awake but Damon has a plan. We are using Mikael to distract Klaus, once he's preoccupied we are going to kill him temporarily and lock him in a coffin like the witches did to Mikael." She gushed in excitement as my heart tugged in my chest.

"Where is Damon now?" I asked calmly despite the inner panic.

"I don't know." Caroline answered simply.

"Wait here stay out of trouble." I demanded as she narrowed her eyes with worry. I didn't have time to stay and explain, instead hurtling into the crowds as the Hybrids began to diminish. That brought a whole new sense of worry with me as i followed them in caution.

Each lingering near the front of the house.

I knew why the moment my eyes landed on the scene. Mikael and Klaus had been reunited after all this time and the air promised blood. I lingered in the tree line surrounding the manner, confused as to why the hybrids were rebelling.

Until the thought of compulsion snapped into my mind.

I knew then in that moment help would be needed and i would be the one to give it. Even if i had to face Damons anger from spoiling his plan. The thought of subduing my own Shadowmate to such a sleep whilst i did nothing sickened me. I realised then that perhaps some of those feelings may have truly been my own.