Chapter 04
1718
Klaus hadn’t joined her by 1710, so Myriam constructed a dog house in the back garden and had banished him there. With the help of her demons, Klaus couldn’t get out until she wanted him to. However, Myriam had loved it when Klaus allowed her to kill all the wolves in the swamp during the next full moon. He stayed close for protection, but she killed them all.
The next day, however, a third of the population was dead, and Elijah wasn’t pleased.
She had come through her adjustment phase just fine, and still, he wouldn’t touch her or be affectionate. Other than the public hand-holding, his hand on the small of her back. She’d become a trophy wife. And it sucked. But ever since he came for her, her status in the colony had changed yet again. Everyone was fearful of her, and she wondered what exactly Elijah had told them about her, but didn’t press for information.
Myriam kept mostly to herself, especially since Klaus hadn’t undaggered Kol yet, and every year she asked. Every year she was refused. It was dampening her spirits, and eventually, it burned her out.
Elijah and Klaus had used their influence to gain access to the council, to rub elbows with the leaders of the colony and were now well respected amongst the colonists. New Orleans fully started to grow in 1718 when a handful of ships arrived out of France filled with criminals and suspected criminals, and a bunch of whores, which made Myriam seize her chance and had a brothel built.
Just out of spite. The wife of the well respected Niklaus Mikaelson was running a whorehouse. In secret, of course. She had compelled one of the colonists to purchase the plot of land and to find someone to build the place for her.
Myriam called it Débauche, and she argued with the whores that she would take better care of them than their owners before buying them all and putting them in a controlled environment. Even for the average day to day issues, she had someone be a front, Myriam wouldn’t be seen, ever. And Myriam got a kick out of that. She was doing something that no one in her family knew of, and wouldn’t likely approve of.
Myriam had her own room inside the building, accessible through a hidden door and protected with Dark Objects and her demons. Her demons kept an eye on her whores and on the patrons and she was happily doing anything she wanted. She kept a list of names of dirty scumbags, in case that she or her family needed to blackmail someone.
The slaves that had been brought over were practising a religion called Voodoo, and it was very similar to what she had believed in as a Dark Witch, and as a demonologist. While she was no longer a witch, she did want to learn all about voodoo.
And much against her own wishes, she secretly purchased a slave named Isabella. She was born and raised on white land in France, and the name was given to her by her owners. Myriam set her free, immediately, but told her that she’d love it if Isabella would stay with her as a companion. To teach her all about voodoo, and she promised to keep the girl safe and fed. Isabella felt more than indebted to her and stayed out of free will.
Myriam had finally found someone who wanted to be her friend and didn’t move in those stupid social circles. Débauche had made her feel alive again.
Which is why it was incredibly frustrating when one of her demons alerted her about the presence of her husband and Elijah being in the building with a few councilmen while she was inside the building. She was going to get caught, there was no doubt about that, but Klaus was about to break his promise to her, wasn’t he?
Furious, she walked out of her office and straight to her husband, slapping him in the face. Hard, and not saying a word as she angrily looked at him.
What was he supposed to say? ‘It’s not what you think?’ She wouldn’t believe that for a second even if it was the truth. And what was she doing here? Was she breaking her promise or was it not what he was thinking?
“Why is Mr Mikaelson’s wife at this whorehouse?” Jean, one of the councilmen, asked. “I’ve never seen her here before.”
“Yes, Mr Mikaelson, if you wish to share your wife, you wouldn’t have to put her in here.”
Klaus glared at them. “My wife is mine alone. You lay a finger on her, and I will have your head across the room,” he warned before turning back to her, seeking answers. “Myriam?”
“I have nothing to say to you,” she answered, eyeing him and his friends. “At least I have not broken my word, my vows,” she said under her breath, leaving.
“And who says I did?” Klaus followed her, ignoring the councilmen and his brother. “Because I’m stepping inside a whorehouse? Where I have no intention of doing anything that goes against what I promised and vowed?”
She looked around, and the second that they were out of range of humans, she sped off home.
“You are a frustrating woman, Myriam!” Klaus said as he walked inside the house after having followed her home. “Explain yourself!”
“I have a cochon for a husband!” she shouted back at him, tears in her eyes. “Why was I there? I own the place! I’m bored to tears here, and you want nothing to do with me but our promises to one another keep us chained. I want you, God knows, I want you but you – not even a kiss. I hate to say that I actually miss Cadiz!”
“You own a whorehouse, and you didn’t bother telling the family? Or me?”
“Yes, Klaus. I own a whorehouse where the girls are safer than with their bosses. I am their boss, I make sure they’re well taken care of, fed and paid. I have been wasting away for the last decade or so, and this made me come back to life. You’re not going to deny me this,” she explained, looking at him. “And what were you doing if not breaking your vows?”
“They wanted a more pleasurable environment to talk business. But I was about to tell them that it didn’t look like you had a comfortable area for business talk.”
She let out a snort, not believing his story. Not accepting his words anymore. “Of course it was business. All it ever is is business. I am convinced that is why you do not want me. You never saw me more than a business agreement. Maybe – maybe it might be time for me to leave.”
“Love, I never saw you more than a business agreement or anything like that,” he said quietly. “I wouldn’t have legally married you if that was the case,” he walked to her and gently took her hand. “I even came prepared when we came for you in 1704, but you were far ahead of me.”
Myriam glared at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He quickly ran upstairs to where his belongings were still mostly in trunks and took out what he needed before coming back downstairs. “I mean, that while we were married, I hadn’t given you a ring. I made sure that the ring was simple and elegant, worthy of being on your finger. With a lapis lazuli looking like a sapphire to protect you from the sun,” he said as he opened the box to show her. “A real wedding ring for my real wife.”
She stared at it, frozen as it was far prettier than the one Kol helped her make. She had made several and had chosen the less ugly one to wear on her finger. “Then why the last ten years? Why if you say you wanted this? I don’t understand.”
“Because you and Rebekah have been right all along, and I’ve been afraid. Perhaps not even ready,” he said as he gently slipped off her ring and put it inside his pocket before slipping on his ring for her. “Please, let us not fight any longer. Allow me to court you as I have promised you.”
“Klaus… I don’t know how much more rejection I can take if you pull away again,” she cried.
“No more rejection,” he said, a promise in his voice as he pulled her into his arms. “No more. I am sorry, my love, for everything I’ve put you through. I’ll make it right for you.”
She leaned into him, burying her face into his chest and breathed him in. “Don’t you ever go to my business without me at your side again. I should dagger Elijah for even agreeing to that ridiculous idea.”
“There aren’t many places the councilmen can gather for a conversation, they were merely looking if your business has the room.”
“The girls service men for money,” she replied. “What kind of room are they looking for? I’m sure I can find one for each of them to share together.”
He let out a snort. “A meeting room, love. One with a big table in it with chairs around it. Perhaps someone to bring a refreshment. You could hire it out to everyone, another source of income. New Orleans doesn’t have a place like that, yet. They still need to build their city hall.”
The suggestion brought a sour taste to her mouth but did not dismiss it. “I will consider it, but you make it clear, your wife was not at all pleased.”
“I will tell them that my wife was not pleased and when they ask what you were doing there, I’ll tell them that you’re into charitable work and were making sure that the girls were well taken care of,” he replied with a knowing smile on his face. “Because that’s your intention, isn’t it? Have someone else be the front?”
“If you must. I still want Elijah daggered or his neck broken. Don’t think that I hadn’t picked up his attempts to track my movements.”
“You can snap his neck over dinner tonight,” Klaus mused as he kissed the top of her head.
She could not help but smile at the thought and looked forward to preparing dinner personally that evening. A French banquet. With bread, pâté, soup and perhaps a few mushroom pies. When she was still a human it would take her a day or two to make it, the preparation was insane, but she could speed that part up now that she was a vampire. “I’ll have to get some groceries. Care to accompany me, husband?” It was likely that the fishermen had some oysters. Oh, oysters… she thought as she glanced at Klaus.
“Do I have to?”
“Of course,” she smiled at him. “I’m but a mere woman, I can’t carry all those groceries by myself and the last time I sent a servant to do my bidding they messed it up… I had to kill him.”
Klaus’ brow twitched as he observed her coyness. “I’m sure he was delicious.”
“So, save a servant and join me?”
He let out a long, suffering sigh. “I suppose I must do my diligence and be a good husband and join you.”
Myriam couldn’t contain her smile as she looped her arm through his and pulled him along to the trade area of their colony. Some people were cooking in the streets, and the smells were fantastic, but she pulled him further along towards the waterfront. The fishermen first. Perhaps they’d have other kinds of fish that she could work with. “I mean, I truly love the fact that we have servants, but you’ve never been here on your own, have you?”
“Not until after nightfall to feed on vagrants, no,” he murmured as he glanced around. “Do you see what you want, love?”
She hummed as she walked along the crates of fish. “Some salmon… yes. Salmon,” she nodded. “And oysters! Mussels!”
“Death by fish?” he asked amused.
“We can have that for two days, I have more planned,” she smiled at him and had the fisherman put everything that she wanted in a bag and paid for the goods.
Klaus begrudgingly took the bag as they walked back to the trade area. “It smells.”
“Of course. It is fresh,” Myriam retorted. “It won’t kill you.”
“I’ll stop complaining,” he put his arm around her and couldn’t hide his smile. “I always love your cooking.”
“Perhaps we can stop past that wretched Valerie. I’d like to try to pick a couple leaves of vervain,” she smirked.
He smiled then. “Or, perhaps it’s finally time to get rid of the hag,” he whispered in her ear. “New Orleans is growing, she’s fallen a few ranks in the society, for which you have Rebekah to thank. She won’t be missed.”
“When is the next moon? If she wasn’t a wolf, then she’s a witch. We’ve found where there is one, there are more. There could be a lot of trouble after she’s gone.”
“I wouldn’t worry about the witches,” he replied. “The wolves were more of a problem. Witches can’t hurt us much.”
“Maybe not you, but I’m not an Original.”
“But you have your own measures of protection,” he countered with a smile. “And perhaps you could use your pets to locate the witches and befriend them before we kill her.”
She pouted as she stopped along the market route. “But I never cared for that kind of craft. Kol practically had to manipulate me into using my magic.”
“I know that you know that. But they won’t have to know that,” he replied. “If anything, we could use an alliance with the witches, keep them happy.”
“No.”
“Very well, I’ll have Elijah try and talk to them.”
She then sighed, realising that some of the witches practised voodoo because most of the witches were slaves or natives. “I’ll try. I have a friend who may be able to help with that.”
“Someone, I know?”
“No. She’s mine,” she said as she walked over to the baker to get some fresh baguettes and rolls before handing the bag to Klaus. “Don’t worry, Klaus, I have my own ways of getting things done.”
He smiled then. She was correct about that. The whorehouse had been a work in progress for almost a year before it became active a couple of months ago. She had figured everything out herself and even amassed a handful of friends. There was no doubt that she had an entire list of people she could manipulate or blackmail for visiting her establishment. “Are you sure?”
She sighed then. “Leave it to me. No doubt you’d have asked Kol to do this if he hadn’t still been in his box!”
“We could free him if you wish.”
She looked at him with a stupid look on her face. “You’re not serious? I’ve been trying to get him out for the last decade, and you always refused!”
He looked around and pulled her aside. “I promised you when I put that ring on your finger that I would do what I can as your husband. I want us to work. Yes, it may take time in areas that may not please either of us, but where I can, I will try to accommodate my beautiful wife.”
She smiled widely then. “You’re really going to unbox Kol?”
“Yes, I miss him too,” he replied with a nod. He knew that Kol would have some issues at first, but with Myriam’s influence, he might tread carefully. If not, she could see with her own eyes how difficult he could get. And then they’d box him again.
“I can’t wait,” she was all excited, picking up her skirts to hurry and finish shopping so that she could prepare a grand meal. Pushing herself up on her toes, she kissed Klaus’ jaw and moved off, listing everything she wanted to find for that night.
Oh, Elijah wasn’t going to be happy about it, but he was going to have to grin and bear it. His wife missed Kol, and she needed to experience his behaviour herself. By the time she was done shopping, he was carrying a lot of bags, and she looked as happy as ever before they walked home.
Myriam disappeared in the kitchen after he put the groceries in there and decided to gather up some vagrants to put them in their fenced off garden, compelled to be quiet so that his brother could have a feast. There was no doubt that he was going to be angry with them for daggering him, but he knew that he was daggered for a reason, and hopefully he had learned his lesson. His siblings weren’t home yet so he could do this without their approval.
Once he was satisfied that the number of people in the garden, he went down to the basement and pulled the dagger out of his brother. Soon enough, Kol shot up in his desiccated state and wanted to punch him. “Easy.”
“I’m going to find a way to kill you,” he rasped as he looked around for some blood source. “How long this time?”
“Not long,” Klaus assured him as he helped his brother up and out of the coffin as he directed him upstairs to the backyard. “Sixteen years.”
Kol darted to the closest male, keeping his eyes on his brother. In his mind, he was still doing the math. Sixteen years. His friend was twenty-one last he saw her. Was she even still alive? Or had she turned? “Myriam?” he asked as he kept feeding.
Klaus tucked his hands in his pocket and glanced over his shoulder to the house. “She’ll likely be out as soon as she is less distracted by her current project. As soon as she realises you are awake, I’m sure you won’t get enough of her.”
“But she’s old now.”
“No,” Klaus smiled at him. “She turned when we arrived here in 1703.”
Kol dropped the body he just drained. “She wouldn’t change unless it was necessary. What happened?”
“We sent her away in 1701, I sent her off with some vials of blood.”
“I remember what you told me! Safety, father, et cetera! How did she turn?!” he demanded.
“We took too long to get here! She had been attacked two days prior to our arrival by some wolves, and I found her just in time!” He responded, defending himself. “If you hadn’t thrown your tantrum, we would have been on our way sooner and would have come home to her sooner!”
The back door flew open, and Myriam appeared with a bright smile. “Kol!!” she cheered as she ran at him, throwing herself around him. “I missed you! I finally got Klaus to let you out!”
“You look beautiful as always, darling,” he said as he stumbled back a little, still a bit weak from only feeding on one of the men in the garden. “I’m sorry for what they did to you, you shouldn’t have been sent out on your own.”
Her smile faltered before brightening again. “It’s alright. Things have a way of working out,” she said as she ran a finger over his ashen face. “Have another. I may have a witch you can feed on depending on Elijah’s negotiations. But I’m making us a celebratory dinner!”
“Oh, good, your cooking is amazing,” he smiled her before kissing her cheek and grabbing another meal while letting go of his friend.
Myriam moved to stand beside Klaus as she watched with a smile. “We can let Elijah clean up the bodies,” she grinned.
“Some manual labour would do him some good,” Klaus mused as he put an arm around his wife before kissing the top of her head. She smelled of food, and good food at that. She smelled amazing, period. Her entire being just sang to him, as it had always done, but he had always ignored it. Now that he was embracing it, he found himself addicted to her scent.
“What in the world are you d— Kol!” Rebekah exclaimed happily before turning to her other brother. “Elijah won’t be happy, you know.”
“I don’t care, sister,” Klaus smiled at her. “Look at my happy wife!”
Kol dead dropped another body. “Wife?! When did that happen?!”
“You didn’t even tell him?!” Myriam shot at Klaus.
Klaus’ mouth opened as he looked to his sister for help. “There wasn’t much time with trying to hunt him down and explaining the situation. He responded quite violently to your travel that the further details had yet to come up. Eventually, we were forced to dagger him,” he admitted. “I am sorry, my love.”
She narrowed her eyes at him before walking over to Kol and to rub his arm to calm him down. “Your brother and I were married because supposedly it would protect me upon arrival here in the French Colony, and it helped me to get on that ship. And the safety worked to a certain extent. The other options of port were terrible. One in a Spanish colony and the other where the colour of my skin would mean more trouble for me,” she said calmly. “So I had to marry him. And the last fourteen years have been terrible. No affection at all, only for appearances sake. Only today he decided he was ready. I haven’t had sex since you, and I did it last!”
Kol frowned. “Well that’s just plain cruel,” he muttered. “I’m always willing to offer my services!”
“I can wait a little longer,” she gently pat his arm. “I don’t want you to get daggered so soon. I’m merely thrilled that after years of me nagging, Klaus finally decided to wake you up.”
“And that he finally decided to be a husband,” Rebekah added. “If he hadn’t walked into that whorehouse they still would not be on speaking terms. Do we have salmon for dinner?”
“Whorehouse? What? Nik!” Kol sounded disappointed. “You wanted to cheat on your wife whom you even hadn’t consumed your marriage with?!”
He looked around in shock and fear. “I swear I have done nothing! Elijah suggested seeing if they had some accommodations for the councilmen due to their philandering ways and I was just merely along! I didn’t even want to be there!”
“You’re a pig, Nik!”
“And she was there too! And that doesn’t seem to worry you?”
He looked at his friend with a smile. “Saving girls, are we?”
“Mon Loulou,” Myriam pouted with a twinkle in her eye and shrugged. “Fourteen years. I grew bored.”
“I can imagine,” he kissed the top of her head. “Well, no more, Myriam. I’ll make sure of it!”
She looked intrigued. “You’ll convince your brother to take me to bed?”
“Something even better,” he smirked before whispering in her ear. “Now you can join in on my parties even better.”
Myriam grinned, giggling before taking off for the kitchen to finish cooking, leaving the siblings together. Especially a frustrated looking Klaus. “Why must she run off all the time like that?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Nik, likely because you’ve been a wanker to her for the last fourteen years. Fourteen years, honestly? Haven’t you done anything with her for fourteen years? Not even a date?”
“I’ve been true to my word,” he scowled. “I’ve been with no other the entire time as well.”
“But you’ve neglected your husband duties because you were afraid,” Rebekah piped up. “But I’m happy that you seem to have made it better today. Did she give you an ultimatum?”
“Stop badgering me! We’re fine now, stop it,” he said as he went inside to find his brother a change of clothes.
“Well,” Rebekah smiled at her brother. “Myriam has built you your own room in this house. No one but you is allowed to enter and believe me, we’ve tried.”
“Really now? What’s the dog house for?”
“Klaus’ room. Might change tonight, but he’s been in there, literally, for the time we’ve been here.”
Kol barked out a laugh. “No wonder he’s grumpy!”
“We should at least see if we can convince him to share the bed if he doesn’t actually do anything else with her. It may soothe her temper if he continues to hold out on her. Honestly, the repairs we’ve had to do because she let a demon loose on him just to frighten him has been tiring.”
“Oh, I’d love to see that,” he said as he kicked against one of the bodies before tearing into the last living ‘present’ that Klaus had gotten him. “But understand one thing, Bekah,” he said as he looked up from his feed, blood dripping out of his mouth. “I’m still cross with you lot for sending her here all by herself and not including me on the decision and plans.”
“You wouldn’t ever have agreed to it.”
“No, I wouldn’t! Because she’s just as afraid of being abandoned as we are!”
“Oh, don’t start,” Klaus said as he returned with fresh clothes for his brother. “Keep feeding then clean yourself up. Elijah will be home soon, and Myriam just informed me that dinner’s almost ready. And please, she’s making this dinner to celebrate, let’s not fight at the table.”
“Then don’t start one,” Kol countered as he finished feeding and took the clothes.
“Elijah might start one, he would never agree to you being undaggered.”
“Elijah deserves a dagger himself,” Kol scowled.
Myriam appeared at the door. “None of you will begin this family fight. This one belongs to me.”
“You didn’t put vervain in our food, did you?” Rebekah asked curiously.
“Not what I’m serving you, no,” she said with a knowing smile. She had made individual meals for everyone, and there was vervain in Elijah’s food, the other meals were clean. “But it will be a rewarding dinner, nonetheless.” She then went to set the table, candles, flowers, the works. Tonight was a celebration. A double one at that. Although she still had to see if Klaus would go through with it all.
Elijah arrived home just in time for dinner, and the first thing he did was verbally attack Rebekah and Klaus for undaggering Kol. “There will be no fighting!” Myriam demanded as she pointed at the table. “Sit. I’m about to bring out your food! And, if you want to know, Klaus undaggered Kol because I’ve been asking for the last fourteen years. Tonight it’s about celebration and reunion. We’re celebrating that Kol is out of his box and that Klaus has finally seen reason which might earn him the privilege of moving back to the cupboard. Of course, when he chooses to join me in our bed, then that would be the best. But I suppose he wants to do small steps. So back to the cupboard it is.”
Once everyone was seated, she went into the kitchen and retrieved the first course; a French Onion soup with baguettes and homemade pate. She first served Kol, earning him a ruffle of his hair, then Rebekah, and then Klaus, whom she kissed on his cheek. Lastly, she served Elijah. His soup was only heavily dusted with vervain, and likely the only meal he was going to have from her three-course meal that was planned for the rest.
“Oh, I’ve missed your cooking,” Kol smiled as he happily tucked into the soup. “Wow, Myriam, this is better than I remember!”
She smiled proudly then. “It’s the soil here that makes everything that grows taste a lot better than in the Old World. Just wait until I break out the salmon and oysters.” She kept an eye on Elijah who seemed to be waiting until she sat down herself to enjoy her meal. “Go on, Elijah, I just want to see the look on your faces as you’re enjoying your soup. I worked hard, I’m entitled to a little pride.”
He took the first bite and swallowed it instead of spitting it out as he started to cough and choke. Rebekah looked alarmed, but Kol was smiling widely, and Klaus looked a little confused. “Vervain,” he breathed, trying to catch his breath as the vervain made its way down his body.
Myriam grabbed him by the neck and made him look at her. “From now on, you will stop interfering with our lives. Everything gets discussed, especially when you want to dagger someone. Kol will be involved in every major decision, just how you include Rebekah in your decisions. You won’t ever set foot in my establishment again. You can try, but you will be very sorry when you try. Kol will be treated as an equal, not as a doormat or errand boy. He’s a better person than you think. Be a brother to him like you are to Klaus. Speaking of Klaus, you will allow him to indulge his wild side more often. The same with Kol. They’re not idiots, they know that they can’t slaughter the entire colony. Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes,” he rasped.
“I swear, Elijah, if you’re not cooperating, I still have my ways to make you,” she said before snapping his neck and dropping his unconscious body to the ground. She then walked into the kitchen to fetch her own soup and sat down at the table. “There. Let’s enjoy a proper family meal,” she smiled at her family.
1724
Myriam and her ladies were looking at the burning building with tears in their eyes. Débauche had been their home for nearly seven years, and now it was going up in flames. It wasn’t just their building, also those surrounding them, but it still hurt. Granted, it would give them a chance to rebuild the structure with the stone and mortar that had been introduced after the ships with people came over in the previous years, but it had been their home. Their sanctuary.
And a lot of Dark Objects that she had created to keep the place safe. They were now all going up in flames. She had tried saving some, but the fire was simply too much, and all she could do was to save her girls. She had no idea what she was going to do with them, perhaps put them in an empty house until her business was rebuilt, but whoever did this, was going to pay.
Myriam could feel the anger and rage course through her veins, and there was nothing she could do about it, apart from likely slaughter an entire village. Klaus still wasn’t touching her the way she wanted, but at least he spent time in bed with her. Thinking about it while the building turned to ash made her feel even angrier. One more year of Klaus not doing what she wanted and she’d leave.
But first, she needed to find the person responsible for this mess, and find a way to keep her girls safe. Of course, she had already sent some of her demons to eavesdrop on the community, but that was going to take some time until they’d come up with something. She knew for sure that it wasn’t done by any of the girls, or patrons, inside the building and it wasn’t an accident. Something had to be set on fire outside the building to cause this blaze.
Deciding that there wasn’t anything she could do now, she brought the girls to the inn and paid for their rooms and gave them their wages, plus some extra. The inn didn’t tolerate prostitution, and she didn’t want them to go out on their own. Myriam made them a promise that she’d continue to pay their wages even though there was no club anymore. She also promised them that she was going to make sure that it was going to be the first building to be rebuilt.
Upon arriving home, she found Kol talking to Klaus. “It may have been an accident, Kol, but that was Myriam’s business.”
“I didn’t know that!” There was a panic in his voice and a rage inside Myriam.
“Please don’t tell me that you were the one who left my girls homeless,” she said as she walked in the door. Her best friend, her soul mate, had set her business alight? Her heart shattered in a million pieces.
“Darling, it was an accident, I swear!” he cried out as he looked at her. “I had a feed, and I tossed the oil lamp like I usually do, and…”
“It hit my building!” Myriam flew into a rage, using the element of surprise to pin Kol against the wall. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? My girls were safe, Kol. I now had to put them up at the Inn, and I hope to God that nothing will happen to them when I don’t have them in a controlled and safe environment!” She pulled him away and slammed him against the wooden wall again, cracking the wall in the process. “The old part of the Colony, like our homes are built out of wood, and you know this. How can you be so careless?!”
“Darling, I’m sorry!”
“What can I do with that? Give my girls shelter? Eat it? Wipe my ass with it? That was the only thing that was truly mine. My project. Mine! And you destroyed it!”
“It was an accident!”
“I don’t care!” She then snapped his neck and jumped back as her friend fell to the ground, repressing a sob as she looked at Klaus, tears burning behind her eyes. Oh, she was going to hate herself for the next words she was going to say, but he deserved it. Any other she would have killed. “He needs time in his box.”
Klaus hesitated for a moment before getting the ash and the dagger out from one of the hidden compartments underneath the table. “Are you sure, love?”
She fisted her hands again by her side and nodded. “I won’t ask for his release. But he needs a timeout, he should have been more careful and he wasn’t. He destroyed what was mine.”
Klaus pushed the dagger through Kol’s chest, causing his unconscious body to gasp and slightly to move before his skin turned grey and his veins turned black. “I shall put him away then…”
“No. Leave him out in the sitting room on the coffee table for a couple days. He can be decoration as a reminder for Elijah or Rebekah not to mess with my things,” she warned and walked out, retreating to her room with a full bottle of alcohol for the privacy to cry for all the losses she suffered and to try to get shitfaced to forget the betrayal of her best friend.
Once Klaus had done as he was told, he quietly made his way up the stairs, hearing Myriam cry as she left the door open. Risking his own neck, he walked into the room and found her sitting on the bed, holding the bottle of alcohol in one hand and trying to wipe her tears with the other. He hadn’t seen her cry, ever, and he doubted that Kol had ever seen her cry.
He sat down on the bed and pulled her into his arms, to hold her close. He didn’t say anything, just allowed her to cry until she was done crying. Eventually, she downed half the bottle as she dried her tears and looked at him. “I want to continue Débauche.”
“Okay,” he nodded. “We will rebuild. I can help, if you like.”
“I had plans for the long run, but they burned. You are going to draw what I want so we can hire men to build it,” she said as she took another swig of her bottle. “I want to include a bar where we’ll serve alcohol, but it also has to be separate from the whores. I want more room for them.”
His eyes travelled to her bottle and nodded. “I can do that. You want a bar, and lounge of sort. A hostel for the girls?”
Her eyes lit up then. “Yes! I want them to have a workspace and a place for themselves on another level! Can we do that? Please?”
Klaus could not help but want to give her everything at that moment, drawing in a breath. “I can draw something up and see if you like it. It may take some compulsion to get it approved, but one way or another, I’ll make sure you get it. If for not watching Kol closer, I’ll do this to repair what was done.” He was apologetic for something he didn’t do that he wasn’t present for as he reached out to wipe her tears from her cheeks.
“You have nothing to apologise for,” she smiled at him. “It was his own actions that lead to this, and perhaps it’s fortunate that it happened to me and not one of the other businesses because then we’d have to do a lot of compulsion. But I’m still very angry with him. Maybe I should send a demon with him to make his dreams more like nightmares… Yes. I will do that. Tomorrow. Let him think he’s gotten off lightly.”
Myriam then crawled into his lap and softly brushed his lips with hers. “Daggering him wasn’t enough. Not pleasing enough.”
“You can do whatever you wish to him, love,” he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear as he looked her in her eyes. Oh, he was smitten, and he knew that he couldn’t push her away any longer. Her emotions were frayed, Kol’s betrayal had pushed her ever so close to the edge and if he was going to deny himself, and her, for longer, it was likely that there would be a point of no return.
“That’s not fair, Klaus,” she pouted as she dropped the bottle, spilling the alcohol on the floor. “Because I want to do whatever I wish to you and you keep refusing me. We’ve shared a bed for a few years now but other than a brush of your skin against mine… You’re all I have left now.”
He reached up and traced down the vein in her neck to the neckline of her dress. “Have I refused you yet today, love?”
“No,” she shivered as his fingers touched her skin and lit it on fire. “But I don’t want you to do this out of pity.”
“Myriam, if you wish to wait this time, then I will, but it is not out of pity. I too am tired of trying to avoid this, and I don’t want to be the reason you leave. Especially after Kol’s actions. I don’t ever want you to leave. So, yes, while my timing in succumbing to your relentless efforts and endless patience is inconvenient,” he said as he held up her hand with the ring he gave her. “I still want you for our eternities.”
She kissed him hard then, moving so she could wrap her legs around him as she pushed him down to the bed, kissing him needily as her heart had started to jump loops in her chest. Rotten timing, indeed, but she was going to take what she was given. And she wasn’t going to let him go for a very long time, either.
Rebekah came home and let out a cry of surprise when she saw Kol daggered on the coffee table. “So it was you who set fire to Myriam’s establishment? Or what else have you done, brother?” she sighed as she sat down next to him before her ears picked up on movement upstairs. “It’s about bloody time!” she cried out before she compelled one of the servants to see what food they had in the kitchen and otherwise to prepare dinner for the family.
~o.O.o~
1820
Thanks to a deal they’d made with the governor of New Orleans, they were allowed to stay at his mansion and feed as freely as they wanted to. All the man wanted was gold in return. Rebekah had fallen in love with Emil, the governor’s son and unfortunately, when Rebekah begged Klaus for Emil to turn, Emil died instead. Klaus had thrown him over the balcony right into the partying mass.
Myriam had scolded him for that while Elijah consoled the grieving Rebekah, because Rebekah deserved to love as well, and while Emil might not have been the brightest of choices, seeing as he was the governor’s son, after all, it had been wrong. When Emil’s funeral was a couple of days later, and Klaus saved a young slave boy from being whipped, she had enough of Klaus’ antics and yelled at him after returning home before she packed her bags and left.
There was no way that she was going to be a mother.
Myriam returned to the Old World, to her home in Florence and cleaning it up. Making it perfect again after years of decay and desolation. She released the demons who had protected the building for over a hundred years and made it her home. Her home, not Medici. She sold most of the artwork, statues, and furniture and had a lot of fun picking up new things to decorate.
She compelled ten humans to work for her as servants and to pamper her, Myriam felt like she had deserved a long, relaxing break from her husband. If he wanted to parent, then he was going to parent without her. She’d be a crappy mother, she couldn’t even remember her own mother at this point. It had been so long, and the only reminder she had of her was a painting that was still in Cadiz. Unless that home burned when Mikael set the village on fire. However, she didn’t want to visit Cadiz any time soon, as she had heard rumours of a revolt going on in that part of Spain and she didn’t want to get caught up with that for only one portrait.
But maybe she should have taken Kol with her, she thought as she sat one night with a glass of wine. Children had never been a subject of conversation. They were vampires after all, but it was something that never interested her beyond caring for her girls at her business. Her girls were in the good hands of Isabella. Myriam had turned her a few years after freeing her and becoming good friends. Klaus had been pissed off, but Myriam wanted friends of her own, and Isabella was the only person she sired.
Myriam spent her time tracking down some of the Medici family and see how they got on and loved that they were still thoroughly cursed. She managed to get a Medici witch from a different line to work for her and Myriam taught her how to make Dark Objects for her. Once Myriam felt she had enough, she made the witch into a meal.
During her time away from Klaus and her family she decided to pick up her habit of drinking vervain tea. It was horrible. Horrifying. It burned her so badly, but at least no one had to see how she was suffering for a little bit of more protection. Not that she believed that Klaus, Elijah or Rebekah had compelled her in the past, but this was for the future. She didn’t trust Elijah enough after all these years to not pull something like compulsion.
And unfortunately, her husband was a paranoid asshole who no doubt would try to compel her upon her eventual return.
Myriam wasn’t worried, though. Kol always told her that she could outsmart anyone she wished, and perhaps she had gotten a little complacent over the last 100 years. Myriam had felt safe and loved, protected. She had built herself a beautiful life with her family, and she barely worked hard these days. It had become more natural to do things as a vampire.
She spent the next 30 years in Europe. Occasionally travelling around – and yes, her mother’s painting had indeed perished in Cadiz, but she explored more houses that had been in her possession after taking her revenge on her family. And sold all of the valuables or gave it away to people who could use it.
When the demon who she had put on Katerina Petrova many years ago alerted her that her behaviour had become unusual, Myriam took her new toys and tea with her and went back to America. And back to Klaus.
1851
The mansion was far too quiet upon arrival. It had been dented over the years, no doubt of the various vampire fights inside the house, and the servers didn’t want to let her in at first, until she just ignored them and headed straight for the bedroom she used to share with Klaus. His scent was faint but still lingered, so she knew that he was going to come back at some point. The servants were still here.
To kill some time, she scattered some of her Dark Objects around the home for some extra protection and sat down on the porch, waiting for her husband to return while she sipped on a glass of wine.
“What are you doing here?”
She looked up to see her husband leaning against one of the pillars and broke out in a smile before flinging herself at him. “I missed you!”
He managed to pry her off of him and pushed her away from him. “Then why did you leave? You left me. You. Abandoned. Me!”
“You saved a child, and instead of putting him with a normal human family, you decided to raise him as your own son!” Myriam countered angrily. “Without consulting me, your wife! Because I would have said ‘no’!”
“That’s why you left? Because of Marcel?”
“Oh, that’s what you named him?” Myriam raised an eyebrow. “Yes. I’m not a mother and the last time I had one was over a century ago. You should have talked to me about keeping him and not simply assume that I was going to help you with the child! What did you do with him? Is he still human? No, you turned him, didn’t you?” The look on Klaus’ face said enough. Of course, he did. He had grown to care for the boy. “If you wanted to raise someone, something, we could have gotten a puppy!”
“You could have stayed! We could have talked about this!”
“I tried!” Myriam countered angrily. “You didn’t listen, so I left. But I’d never abandon you. You knew where I was the entire time. If only you’d have used your brain,” she smiled kindly at him. “I love you, Klaus, but I don’t like it that you make lifelong decisions, like taking care of a child, all by yourself. We’re a team. You and I.”
“Are you staying?”
“Unless you do something stupid again or ask me to do something for you? Yes,” she said simply. “Because you’re an idiot. But you’re mine. My idiot. I will always come back to you.”
“I’ve been lonely without you,” he said as he closed the space between them and put his arms around her. “Without you… I felt lost.”
“Were you faithful like I was?”
“Of course! What kind of question is that?”
She kissed him then and pulled him onto the bench to sit with her. She handed him a glass of bourbon and pulled him into her arms. “Tell me what you’ve been doing then.”
“What? You didn’t leave one of your minions behind when you left?”
“Yes, with the clear instructions to make sure you stayed safe, not to report back to me,” Myriam huffed. “Unless you want me to ask him, I mean, that’s fine.”
“No,” he replied with a sigh. “Elijah took a shine to Marcel about a year into us having him.”
“Oh, I don’t think that went well…”
“Elijah was doing a better job at tutoring young Marcel than I was. So, I undaggered Kol. Now, let me tell you, he was not happy, but he understood why you wanted to dagger him, and I’m sure that he’ll eventually apologise to you in person.”
“How long did it take for you to dagger him again?”
Klaus took a sip of his bourbon and hung his head. “A couple of days later. I wanted to make him feel better after he got out of the box, so we slaughtered a tenement building, we had quite the fun. But he crossed the line when he staged a Shakespeare play for Marcellus with compelled humans. Slaughtered them in front of him and even fed the boy his blood!”
“I can’t believe I missed that! That would have been epic!” Myriam barked out a laugh. “He was jealous, just like you were!”
He shrugged then. “Kol’s more agreeable with you around. I decided to provoke the witches, too. You know, for them to cover up my indiscretions. The townsfolk drowned Celeste Dubois, Elijah’s lover, in a bathtub for punishment.”
She ran a hand through his hair and smiled at him. “I love your brilliant mind.”
“And a decade and a half ago I daggered Rebekah. She had once again fallen for the wrong man; Marcel. I gave him a choice; I’d keep Rebekah daggered and turn him, or, I’d undagger her and have him live out his natural human life. I only did so when his own father shot him in the chest when Marcel was freeing a slave.”
Myriam pursed her lips then. She had smelled the absence of Rebekah in the home, and now she knew why. “Good, now I can fuck around with him.” At least it seemed like the boy had a good heart, but still, she knew she would never like him.
“You will do nothing of the sort!”
She huffed. “You can’t stop me, he’s the reason I went away!”
He enjoyed being in her arms for a long, silent moment between the two of them. “What have you been up to then, love?”
“I remodelled some buildings,” she shrugged. “And I went to your house in Cadiz, but it got burned down. My mom’s painting was still in there, wasn’t it?”
He slowly nodded as he eyed her. “That’s all you did over there?”
“And poked some remaining Medici’s. Had one work for me for a while, but then a little birdie told me that I should come back to America to have fun with the vampire Kol and I encountered in Florence the first time round.”
“You’re going to leave me again?!”
“No,” she smiled at him and tenderly kissed him. “I’ve sent some demons over to keep an eye on the vampire. I’m staying. I told you. I’m staying.”
Klaus sighed then. “I had anticipated a fight upon your return.”
“Are you disappointed?”
“Perhaps a little,” he admitted with a smile on his face.
“Because of the good sex that usually follows after?” She asked suggestively. They had their fallouts over the years, but the makeup sex was always worth it. Myriam merely felt that she shouldn’t feel angry anymore about something that had happened three decades ago. “I’d never turn down good sex, mon Loulou.”
He gently took her hand. “Then please join me in our bedroom in our new home in the Quarter. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
~o.O.o~
1863
They had only arrived back in New Orleans after their five year trip across the sea to Europe because she had insisted he’d leave the city, and she wanted to show him the properties that were still in her name. She figured he was going to need them one day, mainly because they hadn’t heard from Mikael in a very long time.
Mikael’s presence was long overdue, and even Klaus was getting a little paranoid. And thus, during their five years away, they had come up with a battle plan in case things would go wrong. Just her and Klaus. Find safe places to hide, to disappear. Myriam would act as his liaison, his gatekeeper, sort to speak, should Mikael make the family scatter.
However, part of that plan was for Myriam to adopt a new last name as her own was ancient, and it’d still raise eyebrows. Myriam had to become ordinary. Klaus came up with the last name of Jenkins, and a new middle name as Hope. Because hope was what she was to him, amongst many other things. Myriam Hope Jenkins.
They compelled a random woman in Austria to sign over Myriam’s properties over to her and invite them both into all of them. Then, they had the woman go to a lawyer and set up a will for all the properties to be put back in Myriam’s name once the woman died. And then they made her forget.
But for now, she was still Myriam d’Medici, they were still safe. For how long they didn’t know.
She rolled into Klaus with a sigh and gently kissed his chest to wake him up from his slumber. One of her demons had alerted her to a potential problem brewing in the village where Klaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Elijah were born, and she knew that he didn’t want to return there just yet. It wasn’t the right time.
And the right time would be when there was another doppelganger so he could finally break his curse and become the person who he always was, underneath. It could take a very long time, and fortunately, he had grown patient. But the potential problem was going to be a problem in the long run or could be one in the long run, and she needed to make sure nothing irreversible would happen. “Mon LouLou,” she whispered as she kissed him along his jawline. “I fear for your village, the newly founded town of Mystic Falls. Do I have your permission to go and have a look?”
“Why?” Klaus groaned as he rubbed his eyes and turned a little to look at her. “I want you by my side, Myriam.”
“And I always will be, but we’ve also talked about more protection for you and the family, and I feel that I need to go and have a look. I’ll come home every few weeks, I promise.”
“But we’ve just gotten back to New Orleans, must you really leave this soon?”
“Just to make sure they won’t ruin your future playground.”
“And what is going on then?”
She shrugged. “It seems like a few vampires are living there and a Bennett witch, they might cause trouble,” she then let out a long, exasperated sigh. “And my demon informed me that the Bennett witch is a friend of Katerina Petrova.”
“How dare you say that name in our bed!” Angry, Klaus sat up and looked at her. “You killed the mood!”
“I’m merely being honest!” Myriam defended herself. “That bitch is a manipulative one, I don’t want her to ruin your playground for you! The village you come from! I’ve never been, and I’m asking your permission instead of leaving without telling you!”
“You’d still leave if I refuse.”
“Yes,” she huffed as she sat up and looked at him. “Because Mystic Falls is close to New Orleans and she might be scheming to hurt you or our family!”
He looked at her and knew that she wasn’t going to let up. She was stubborn like that. But as an original vampire, and her sire, he could tell her to stay. Command her to stay with him. “Listen closely, Myriam. You’re not leaving my side. I want you with me. Have I made myself clear?”
“Asshole,” she pushed him away and got out of bed. “I would have thought that maybe Elijah would try to compel me to get away from you, to convince me that you’re the worst and that I should run. But you! You tried to compel me!” She started to get dressed, anger coursing through her veins. “You betrayed my trust!”
“Why didn’t it work?”
“And you’re not even denying it!”
Klaus got off the bed and pushed her against the nearest wall. “Tell me!” he demanded.
“I’ve been ingesting vervain for the last four decades!” Myriam slapped his cheek. “Because I’d like to keep my own mind, thank you very much!”
“You don’t trust me!”
“I do! I don’t trust your brother!” she yelled at him. “Now, let me go! I promise I’ll come back in a few weeks, but I need to do this to make sure you’re safe!”
“You don’t trust me!” he let go of her, got dressed and stormed out, followed by a lot of crashing and breaking of things.
She followed him out and stopped him before kissing him, hard. “I love you, Niklaus Mikaelson. I trust you with everything inside of me, but I don’t trust your brother. That’s why I’ve been ingesting vervain. Not because of you, but because of your brother. And it hurts that you broke that trust by doing the exact thing that I feared from your brother. You have no reason to act like this. I’m not an Original. I need to protect myself somehow. I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“Aside from running away!”
“I’m not running away! I’m going to take care of things, and I will be back!” she shot at him. “I will come back!”
“Will you leave some of your pets behind? For me?”
She blinked at him then. “Are you sure?”
“Thanks to that one you left with me before we arrived here in New Orleans, I knew where to find you. If you hadn’t, you would have bled out. I want you to leave one or two of them with me. So that they can keep an eye on me, and they can report back to you. Please.”
She smiled at him then as she took his hand and led him back to the bedroom. “I will.”
