If you're STILL bummed about that whole Elena thing on "The Vampire Diaries," take heart -- don't STAKE heart (hehe) -- we have something that's sure to cheer you up. "The Originals: The Resurrection" is hitting shelves on May 26, and we have an exclusive excerpt right here.

Writer Julie Plec takes us to 1700s New Orleans in this snippet, where Klaus and the werewolves are continuing their battle in the midst of family fallouts and romantic entanglements.

Elena who?

Read up below!

Klaus’ eyes scanned the torchlit streets of the Werewolves’ quarter. There was no sign of movement, no hint of a watch being kept. Were they that secure in their power? The werewolves were all sleeping, confident in their plan to attack his vampires in the morning. Guillaume had confirmed it on the hour -- he’d spied the pack leader, Sampson Collado, going over his final strategy that afternoon. But Klaus would have the upper hand this night, just the way he had intended it.

“Drive them out of their homes,” he reminded his soldiers. They were new to their strength, new to their heightened reflexes, senses and appetites. A little practice would do them good, and what better training than a raid on the actual enemy? “Aggravate them, disrupt them. Don’t get pinned down; just turn the quarter inside out and then regroup at the garrison.”

Klaus heard an appreciative rumble spread through his army. They were eager for a fight, eager to impress the more experienced vampires and especially their invincible general. This sort of raid was more than just a drill: It would help to separate the wheat from the chaff.

“It’s not too late to reconsider,” a voice beside Klaus’ ear warned, and he gritted his teeth together before turning to stare down its owner. Oh, Lisette. Lisette had been pleasant enough before she had taken up with Elijah, but over the years her loyalty to her lover had grown increasingly irritating. Now that Elijah had ended their romance and taken up with some two-bit whorehouse fortune-teller, the fact that Lisette still took his brother’s side over Klaus’ was almost infuriating. “We could stick to their storehouses and shops, to disrupt them without showing our hand. There’s no need to provoke open war.”

Her gray eyes were so earnest that Klaus could almost believe she was speaking for herself, rather than just parroting his brother’s usual ideas. Don’t make trouble, don’t strike first, better to be the victim than the aggressor... Klaus didn’t know how Elijah could stand it. The Mikaelsons’ lives were far too long to waste responding and reacting and hesitating century after century. They were entitled to forge their own fates.

“There’s no need,” he agreed icily. “If you’d rather sit at home, Lisette, and wait for the wolves to come to your door, you’re welcome to do so. But if that’s the case, then it’s a toss-up over who will kill you first -- me or them.”

She tossed her red-blonde hair back over her shoulder, the expression on her freckled face stopping just short of outright defiance. They had been friendly once, but Klaus knew better than to trust her now. Lisette’s association with Elijah had tainted her, and if she intended to prove herself in Klaus’s army, then she was already off to a bad start, talented warrior or not.

“I’ll take a group around to the south,” she informed him, her voice clipped and nearly as cold as his own. “We can keep an eye on the perimeter for you.”

“You want to watch my back?” He let his face convey the depth of his skepticism, but he signaled to a nearby cluster of vampires and gestured for them to follow Lisette.

“Fine, then,” he said. “Show me how committed you are to our cause, Lisette. I’ll be watching with great interest.”

She stalked off without another word, and about a dozen vampires followed her. Klaus looked back over his army, crammed into the narrow streets of the Werewolves’ quarter like a deadly wave about to break.

“Go,” he commanded, and they leapt forward as one, pouring along the cobblestones toward the dark houses where their enemies slept.