Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries / The Originals, or any of the characters, plot-lines, dialogues from the shows or books

However, I do own Catherine Matthews/ my very own Katherine Peirce, her backstory, the storyline, and any additional characters that do not belong to The Vampire Diaries or The Originals. Characters in this story may not have the same opinion as you. These characters are all fictional.

Nowthat I think about it searching for something you don't know is a lot harder than resisting incredibly hot and sexy Vampires.

The thing is, when I said I am meeting someone, I didn't particularly mean someone I knew or talked with. However, I did want to know more about the Traveler's curse. I know they won't stop until there are only one last pair of doppelgangers left. And I highly doubt anyone will let precious Elena die. Considering everything and everyone revolves around her. And don't know until when I am going to be stuck here.

So, I am here to find any solution that will keep me from being dead, quite pathetically, in a fictional world. The TV show Katherine survived Klaus, and so, I sure will as well, but I am not sure if I can survive a whole bunch of travelers from achieving their goal. They can be in anyone, and anywhere. Like Nadia's boyfriend.

Even though Katherine has so many contacts, I don't know which one I should ring to. I also don't know what and how exactly they are related. So, I started searching for voodoo shops that seem to be famous in this universe, in the old fashioned way. Well, most of them were phony. However, I found one real witch on my second day here.

The shop was empty, and some old woman was grinding some herbs, and when she saw me entering, she said: "to eídos sas Den epitrépontai schólia."

"English, please," I said, looking around the shop.

She then met my gaze and said in her broken Greek accent English "Your kind are not allowed here."

"Ouch. Is that how you do business? Pushing your customers out? No wonder your business is dull," I said, going inside without shame, and she glared at me. I thought she will give me an aneurysm, but she was not.

"What do you want?" She said.

"World domination," Was my instant reply, "But for starters, I want to know where I could find some travelers or at least their books about prophecies and spells," I said with a smile.

"Witches and travelers hate each other. We are not friendly enough to exchange grimoires and have a study club," she sassed.

"I know that, darling. But they were from here. So, they should have left something behind," I said. The old lady is just so cute, I just want to kiss her, and she's got fire.

"You can find them in the museum," she said, "They have a lot of old books."

"Now, you are talking. Where can I find this museum?" I asked, ready to leave.

"National Archeology," she said.

"Great. Here's the money for your help," I said, keeping some Euros on her table and left.

The same night

"Why are you here again? It's closing time," the old lady said with a sigh.

"Well, I am bored and drunk, and I am in desperate need of someone I could talk to, without asking any questions in return," I said, taking a swig from the bourbon bottle.

Seeing that I am not going anywhere, she turned the close board at the entrance and came to sit in front of me, not before taking a glass from the drawers and placing it in front of me. I raised an eyebrow, but seeing she was serious about it, I poured some scotch in her glass.

"You are not like normal witches. They are usually judgy," I commented, looking at the wrinkly lady.

"You are not like normal Vampires, either. You sulk a lot," she said.

"Apparently, the artifacts were transferred to Australia for some exhibition, and it will take a week or two until they return here," I explained to her.

Why is my luck so bloody fucking worst?

"And you don't want to waste a week of your immortal life?" she enquired with an incredulous expression.

"I am on a tight schedule...What's your name again?" I asked in between, and she replied, "Melantha," with a scoff.

"Hi Melantha, I am Catherine Mathews. As I was saying, I am on a tight schedule, and I don't want to waste a week here doing nothing," I said to her spilling my original name.

"Why are you searching for travelers?" She asked, pouring another drink.

"I wanted to know more about their history. Considering Qetsiyah is the Traveler who started all this bloody nonsense of immortality in the first place," I said

"So you are a believer?" She said, and I nodded my head. "Normally, people think Silas, Amara, and Qetsiyah are bedtime stories. Are you looking for a way to raise Silas?"

"God! no," I said with distaste. The guy is total nuts. I am lucky, considering I don't feel that obsessed love towards Stefan like canon Katherine. I think it has something to do with my soul transfer or some shit like that. Fuck Markos and his doppelganger spell. "Let's say I am looking for a way to not raise any travelers, alive or dead."

"Athens is not bad. There is a lot of history here. You just have to look in the right place and ask right people," She said in her Greek English accent.

Right People... How do you expect me to compel someone if I don't know their language? In the tv show, everyone knew English, and so no one noticed this gaping loophole.

"Melantha, will you be my Greek teacher. Trust me, I am a fast learner, and I have a perfect memory. I will not forget something I heard. In return, I will pay you as you see fit," I asked her, resting my face on my palms looking at her with the most pitiful expression I could muster in my drunken state.

I knew her enough from my two meetings that she is stubborn and wasn't afraid of threats. So I decided to ask her nicely.

After a lot of irresistible puppy faces, she finally agreed with a sigh, "Tomorrow morning, Sharp eight."

"Great," I said excitedly. For a second, it felt excellent not to act and scheme. I know that survival comes at a price. But am I really willing to sacrifice myself?

Whatever, I think I deserve this holiday from all the planning and scheming I have been doing for nearly two months now. I guess a week of vacay won't hurt after all.

I was currently sitting at a cafe having a cup of coffee, which I ordered in my-now-practicing-greek language when I saw someone, I have never expected to see here.

"You gotta be kidding me," I said out loud, looking at the person who just entered the door. I think the Vampire in the fine clothing heard me perfectly and made his way towards me with a devilish smirk.

"Well, well, well, isn't this the legendary Katherine Pierce," he said, sitting in front of me.

"I didn't say you could sit," I said, setting my cup down.

Did the original Katherine meet him before or is this the first time

"My apologies, I am Lucien, Lucien Castle," He said, holding his hand out, "However, something tells me you know me."

"I have heard of you and your 'Kingmaker Land Development'. And I have also heard you are arrogant and overly confident," I said, not giving my hand but air quoting his company name.

"So you should also know I am the first-ever Vampire to be turned as well," He said with a cold voice, probably trying to scare me.

I know he is powerful, and pissing him off wouldn't get me anything. But I am not going to bow down my head for everyone.

"And I should care, why?" I said with the same voice.

"I like you," he said, laughing a bit, "You are good. But you should know darling, not everyone is as laid back as me."

"Are you talking about Tristian de Martel? Or Klaus Mikaelson?" I questioned, instead.

"You sure know a lot than you let on, don't you?" he mused thoughtfully to which I shrugged, "Tell me, are you still on the run from Nik?"

"You mean Niklaus," I said, "Yup. It's hard not to when he is obsessed with finding me. So are you going to call your friend and inform him about me or haven't you seen him for a long time now?"

"I do keep tabs on him even if I don't see him. And I have a lot of important works to do than be his little informer," he said, playing with the daylight ring on his middle finger. "And as you said, I have a company to run. In fact, I am here on business. I heard there's a genius here somewhere, and I am here to offer him a job."

"The CEO searching employees by himself. He must be wise," I said, remembering his experiments involved werewolf bite cures and all the other nasty stuff.

"Very," he said with a smirk, "That's my card." He said, pushing a black business card towards me, which I took without touching him.

'It might come in use, sometime,' I thought.

"Great then. Nice meeting you, I guess," I said, getting up from the chair, slipping the card into my purse, but I didn't reach for as the native french Vampire caught my wrist, holding me in place.

"Now, Now. We are only getting started," the wickedly charming Vampire said.

"Even, I have things to do,honey," I said in a sickly sweet tone, and left from there, prying my hands off his.

"I always love a good challenge," he said loud enough for me to hear.

I have nothing to fear until he becomes an upgraded original, which will not happen anytime now and will only last a week or something. And he is playing his role as Klaus's buddy, now, so I can't join him on his revenge quest against Klaus. Also, I don't believe him not to ditch me or use me as some collateral damage. It's better to be as far as possible from him and his "Trinity gang." I have enough on my plate dealing with "The Vampire Diaries" problems, I don't want to deal with "The Originals" issues as well.

And just like that, my fun week was over, and I absolutely enjoyed it by myself without putting any facades, trying to impress someone or plot something evil. It's been a week since I started my Greek lessons with Melantha, and for a week I cut off from the outside drama world. But knowing it's time to get back to work, I switched on my phone for the first time in the week.

As soon as I switched on, I heard a flood of notifications.

Baby Vamp Caroline - 20 missed calls.

Informer Isobel - 5 missed calls.

Volatile Damon - 20 missed calls.

Broody Stefan - 25 missed calls.

Little Gilbert - 7 missed calls

Rose the unprofessional kidnapper - 15 missed calls

The last Bennett - 2 missed calls.

Alaric the teacher - 12 missed calls

There were few messages and voice mails as well.

And since I am not in a mood to hear all the voice mails and read all messages, I just listened to the last voice mail which was from Damon.

"Katherine Pierce, if I listen to your voice mail of "Hey, it's Kat. Leave a message" one more goddamn time, I don't know what I will do. It's been a week now. If you don't lift your phone the next time I call you, I am personally coming to Greece, and this time I am going to ask Martin's, your exact location, and then I will drag your cute little ass back and lock you up in the basement. And if this is one of your plan B or C, it sucks," he said, almost stressing every word and in a severe tone.

He sounds angry...

I then pressed the key on Stefan's message.

"Katherine, it's me... again. If you plan on leaving for a different country on a different continent, the least you could do is answer your phone. Everyone is worried here. Caroline is already thinking of all the possible ways to murder you." He sighed and continued, "Look, just call someone, so we know you are safe, okay?"

He is brooding as usual.

I then braced myself to hear the most dreadful voicemail of all.

"Call me, you said. Keep me updated, you said. I will be back soon you said" Caroline's sarcastic and angry voice was heard through the phone "It's been a week, and there's no trace of you. We had to ask Martin's to do a locator spell using your hairbrush, which was totally creepy, in my opinion. Tell me, should I be worried about my dying relationship with Matt, or you not answering any of your calls? I swear to god..."

I didn't hear the rest of the scoldings and cut the call.

She sounds pissed.

I guess I have to call someone to inform you that I am not dead. I decided to call Stefan. Because, A, He doesn't shout like others.

B, because he doesn't shout like others.

And so I rang him and waited a few moments for the phone to be answered.

"Hey, Stefan. How are you? It's very windy here," I chirped as soon as I heard the phone ring.

"Do you have any idea how worried everyone is here?" I heard Damon's voice through the phone. I checked the phone if I called the right person, and I was correct.

"Hey, that's my phone," I heard Stefan say from another end. Great he took Stefan's phone.

"Hi Damon," I said, chuckling nervously, "Look, I thought I will be back soon, but the thing I came to do is taking time."

"What thing?" He asked

"See if it's your plan of running away with moonstone. Don't," I heard Stefan's voice now.

"How do you know about the moonstone?" I asked.

"Isobel spilled the beans." Stefan said vaguely, "Look, I know you said you will leave with the moonstone, so Klaus won't come after us, but you don't have to do that. We can fight him, Katherine. You don't have to run. Not for you or us."

Oh! So they are thinking I left with the moonstone to save their lives. Why didn't I think about this?

"Hey Stef, I will call you later," I said instead when I saw the familiar voodoo shop and cut the call before hearing any protests.

"You are late," the old lady reminded me as soon as I stepped inside.

"I know. But guess what, the artifacts are going to be here tomorrow," I said, "And I already compelled a curator to message me as soon as he gets any information about the books."

"What will you do when you get it? You don't know how to read it," She said.

"I know genius, and that is why I am appointing you as my translator. Don't worry, I will pay you," I snarked back.

From what I knew about, this Old hag fell in love with a Vampire at a young age, but something horrible happened, and he was staked. From then on, she abandoned her coven and lived by herself drowning in her misery. And she said, and I quote, "If I had a daughter one day, she would've looked like you," and that is why she is helping me, and I am letting her as she is not a bad company. And she reminds me of someone in my old life.

"So you are leaving then," she asked.

"Don't pout. I will leave the books with you, and I will be back at least for them," I said.

"Who is pouting?" She said with a scoff, "I don't care whether you stay or leave."

"Fine. I believe you," I said clearly, knowing the old hag liked me "How about we skip our last class today and party? I will get your scotch," and she nodded.