"Now we have something else interesting, don't we?" I asked with a gentle smile while Damon was pinned against the wall, breathless. "Mason Lockwood."
His eyes widened.
"You know what he is?" Damon asked, confused and now interested.
"Of course I do," I said with a laugh. "It's easier than you think, but I'll let you figure it out… You're free to test him."
"Since when do you order me around?" Damon growled at me.
"Since you don't stand the slightest chance of defeating me," I replied with a laugh, flicking my hand again. He flew across the house and crashed against the stairs. "And this is my city… you're only here because I allow it."
"How… It's impossible for a witch to be turned into a vampire and remain a witch," Damon snarled, still recovering.
"I'm special. Besides, your girlfriend really messed with your head — kissing you while pretending to be Elena is hilarious," I said with an amused laugh. "Don't worry, I won't tell your brother."
"How do you know that?" Damon asked, shocked and unsettled.
"I know everything that happens in this city… it's my domain," I said, giving him a mischievous look. "You know, if I wanted, I could take Elena from both of you. One snap of my fingers and she'd come crawling, kissing my feet for attention… But I won't."
I had made it clear. Both Damon and Stefan knew Elena had a platonic crush on me, and they knew that no matter what they did, they would never be above me in her scale of attention.
"Oh mighty king of the city, what must we do to keep your generosity?" Damon asked with irony.
"Simply don't cause unnecessary problems," I said lazily. "I don't want to have to kill you both."
"You need us," Damon said, studying me. "You could have killed us whenever you wanted, but you didn't… something doesn't allow you to."
He stepped closer.
"My guess… is that as powerful as you are — powerful enough to blow us apart with a snap — you don't kill us because you don't have permission. You're working for someone. Katherine is afraid of someone… I saw it in her eyes," Damon said, staring into mine with frightening anger. "I'll find out who you work for. Maybe I'll take your place. Who knows, maybe they want someone more charismatic."
I burst into laughter.
"You're very funny, Salvatore. That's one of the reasons you're still alive."
"Then kill me," Damon provoked.
"Come on. Kill me," he insisted.
The smile never left my face.
The air in the room grew heavy — not physically. Damon was still breathing. Oxygen still existed. But something was crushing his instincts, whispering for every part of his vampire body to step back…
And he didn't.
Brave.
Or suicidal.
I stepped forward.
The distance between us vanished.
"You really don't understand, do you?" I said softly. "Your life… Stefan's life… they're not on a scale."
I tilted my head, watching every microexpression.
"You are… entertainment."
I touched his chest with two fingers.
He was thrown against the wall again — not hard enough to destroy it.
Just enough to remind him.
The whole house groaned.
The shadows on the ceiling twisted like living things, moving with my mood.
"I work for someone?" I repeated with a low laugh as I walked toward him. "Do you think there is anyone in this world who can give me orders?"
There was.
My mother.
But she wasn't technically in this world.
I crouched in front of him and forced him to look at me.
"And that's exactly why you're still alive, Damon… because you think. Because you observe. Because you're the only one here who realizes when you're standing in front of something far above the food chain."
I let go and walked to the window.
"Mystic Falls looks peaceful, doesn't it?"
Silence.
"There is no one above me in this city."
I turned slightly.
"There are things on my level in the world… but thanks to me… they haven't entered this city."
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed everything.
When they came back, I was gone.
Only my voice remained beside his ear:
"Find out what Mason Lockwood is… keep entertaining me… and I won't eat precious Elena or make her mine."
A pause.
"And Damon… stop kissing Katherine thinking she's Elena. It's getting embarrassing."
At the Lockwood party, Mason walked past me, ignoring me. He sensed I was a vampire and still ignored me.
Bold dog.
I watched the arm-wrestling match — Stefan testing Mason and losing.
Stefan held back.
Mason didn't.
Not an alpha.
No control outside the full moon.
Then a presence behind me.
"Well, if it isn't the famous king of the city," Elena's voice said.
Katherine.
"Well, if it isn't the vampire who got beaten by my wife," I replied with a smile.
"I don't know how you made that girl so strong," Katherine purred. "But you'll do the same for me."
"And what do I get?"
"All of this," she said, gesturing to her body. "You get to have me."
"I'll pass. If I want that, I can go to Elena. Same body. Same face. Younger. More innocent. And she's into me."
"I didn't say you had a choice."
She attacked.
Faster than Damon.
To her, I must have looked slow.
My hand closed around her throat.
I lifted her with ease.
"How…" she choked, then her eyes filled with terror.
"Klaus?"
She began to tremble.
Oh… I really do look like my father.
"Oh, Katherine… you came to me."
"Please, Klaus, I have Elena—"
"Are you stupid? I just said she's into me. I only want you."
I bit her.
Her blood tasted disgusting.
Each swallow brought nausea.
I dropped her, skeletal, broken.
"You will not run. You will stay in this city and finish your plan. You will fear me… and you won't know why."
Her mind tried to reorganize reality.
And failed.
"Look at me."
Absolute.
"You're not leaving Mystic Falls."
She resisted.
I tightened my grip.
"You will stay. You will manipulate, seduce, betray… because I want to watch."
The compulsion sank in.
"If you run, I will follow. It won't matter where. And next time… I'll take my time."
She trembled.
Katherine Pierce.
Trembling.
"So choose. Surrender… or I make this slow."
Her resistance broke.
"Good girl."
My hand brushed her cheek.
"Here… you're allowed to exist. In my city, only its inhabitants may touch you — and you are stronger than most of them."
That hit deeper than the threat.
"Feed before someone notices the great Katherine Pierce looks like a museum mummy."
A step.
"And Katherine… stop calling me Klaus. He would have been far less patient."
I returned to the party, took a glass of bourbon, and drank.
Infinitely better than vampire blood.
Territory secured.
Katherine under compulsion.
She knew I existed and what I could do to her… but she couldn't measure me inside her plans.
And for the first time in five hundred years…
Katherine wasn't planning how to run.
She was thinking about how to survive inside my city.