Alarics P.O.V.
I hung up the phone with my contact from California, apparently some unregistered witch was going rampant. I had no idea what I was about to face but I knew I would need the best witches there to help calm this girl down. I called Hope who saw this coming and just packed up her things. She was excited, last she had heard her aunt Rebekah was in California.
We packed our bags and I said goodbye to my girls and we were off. I was sad to go, but I knew I had to. I never wanted to bring them along, it was too dangerous, I could never focus with them around.
This is was very bad timing, I was just researching another kid, he might be a werewolf. He would be scared and confused, and probably very angry. But right now he would have to wait. I knew the witches were very protective of their own. I needed to prioritise this over the werewolf. Or else these covens might do something bad, before I get there. I had never heard of a witch that strayed from their coven. The only one I had heard of ever was Davina.
I got in the car about to go to the airport and Hope jumped in beside me, she had a blank expression, but I knew she was excited to see her family.
I started the car and waved goodbye to the girls. I hated leaving them like this, but I hoped that they would be okay. We drove to the airport in small silence until Hope decided to clear her throat awkwardly.
"So why exactly are we going to California?" She said and I sighed looking to her.
"An unregistered witch." I said simply looking at the road, trying to mask my own wonder at who or what this person could be.
"What? There is no way. Only one witch in the history of witches has defied her coven like this. No way there are an unregistered witch there." Hope said protesting. I only knew a little, so I was as confused as she was.
"Well, my contact called me. The witches don't know who it is." I said and she scoffed at me.
"Those covens are crazy there is no way that they would let a witch go unregistered, not for long at least." She said and I sighed.
"Well either it is a really powerful toddler or someone has gone to a lot of lengths to hide her from everyone, including the witches." I said and I could feel her look at me confused.
"Wait, how do you know it is powerful? We could be in real danger." She asked worried. I looked at her briefly with a comforting smile.
"Look all I know is that the church glass blew up, and there is wicked rain and lightning. My contact tested it with herbs it is not natural weather." I said turning my look back on the road.
We got to the airport and walked straight to the plane. I got a text from Josie and I knew our tickets were booked and checked in. We only had to wait 20 minutes before we got on our plane. I smiled a little proud of my girl, she was really great at this. I should get both of them a souvenir before going home.
Before we got on I stopped Hope and looked at her with a serious look.
"Look, I brought you because I know you wanna see your aunt. But no funny business Hope." I said and she nodded and sighed.
"You also might want to call your uncle or aunt, they might have an idea, what we have on our hands." I said and she nodded walking away to make a phonecall.
I smiled after her and boarded the plane a little scared of what to expect in California.
Once we were there we met up with Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson. I shook their hands and let them have a moment with Hope. I loved seeing her with her family, she looked so happy and content. I wished I could see more of that side of her at school.
"So we are looking for a wicked witch of the west?" Rebekah said after a while and I nodded.
"Well we don't know much. But the witches know nothing of what is happening other than it is very powerful magic. None of the covens will admit it could be their doing." Elijah said sternly.
"That is about all we know too. Hope said something about being one witch in history that defied her coven. Who?" I said and Rebekah chuckled slightly, Hope rolled her eyes at me.
"Davina, a harvest girl and a ex-regent, extremely powerful, but she is not causing this, she ran away with our brother Kol 14 years ago." Elijah said sadly and Rebekah seemed to comfort him. I guessed that they missed their brother.
"Well that was my big guess. You got any idea to find whoever is causing this?" I asked as to prove my point it started raining very hard and lightning stroke a few times.
We got inside the Mikaelson residence and they finally answered my question.
"We have an idea." Rebekah said and vamp sped away.
I stayed silent while we waited for Rebekah to return. Hope chatted lively with her uncle and I wanted to leave them to their moment. Rebekah was back shortly carrying what I imagine was a grimoire. I raised my eyebrow suspiciously. I did not like Hope doing magic outside of school.
"This is our mothers grimoire, we found a spell in it. It is harmless god knows I would never hurt my niece. It will let you trace where the magic is coming from." Rebekah said finding the spell and smiling at Hope giving her a small pad on her head. I liked seeing her happy like this, she smiled back at her aunt. It was nice to see her open up a little. I just wish that could happen a bit more in school.
I let out a sigh of relief as she mentioned not wanting her niece hurt. At least we have that in common. I left Hope and Rebekah to do the spell as Elijah wanted a word.
"I trust that Hope's education is going well?" He asked and I nodded and smiled.
"We do our best. She is fantastic at school. It's her social skills that could use a little work." I said sadly.
I really wanted Hope to be happy and go out with the other students. But she was too stubborn on her principle about not letting anyone in. Elijah just smiled a little and sighed.
"A trait she no doubt inherited from my brother Niklaus. He had, to put it delicately, poor social skills too." He said smiling and I chuckled slightly and shrugged.
"To put it delicately yes." I said and he smiled at me for a moment before getting serious again.
"I fear that it is something very bad haunting us these days. Our family has always attracted bad magic. But I haven't seen something like this since Dahlia." He said worried no doubt about Hope, I sighed if it was bad enough that an original vampire was worried, I should definitely be worried too.
"Do you mind if we come along, as a precaution?" He asked and I was taken aback but just smiled at him.
"Of course you're welcome. Whatever is causing this is powerful, we could use all the help we can get." I said and he smiled and we walked back and joined the others.
They had finished and we looked at the map on the location. On the way to the car Hope stopped me and gave me a serious look.
"There was something weird when we did this tracking spell Alaric. This dot seemed to want to go further, but was stopped by something. I think the real place is near, but cloaked, very well cloaked." She said and I sighed and nodded.
"Like I said, it seems someone has gone to great lengths to hide this child from the other witches. I just hope it was hiding from the witches and not them hiding from it." I said and she sighed and walked to join her family.
Now I was especially happy that Elijah and Rebekah was going.
We drove to where he drop had stopped on the map, it was as Hope had said, someone had gone to great lengths to hide this place. We got out of the car and I looked around confused.
"Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing this blue cloak?" Rebekah said and we all looked to where she was standing.
One apartment building was covered in a blue hue, normally only witches could see those things. What is this place? This seems like a lot of effort, when a lightning shot down near I knew that we were close.
We walked to the blue hue and Hope touched it, but seemed to easily pass through. She looked to me confused and I shrugged. I had no idea what this was either.
"It seems safe." She said and we all walked through.
We walked into the building and Rebekah and Elijah went in first to see what all of this was. After a while they did not come back. I was worried. Hope was as well and she ran up the stairs trying to find them. I followed her hoping that she would not do anything stupid. I would rather not see her get killed.
She opened a door with her magic and we walked into an apartment. The place was completely trashed we then saw Elijah and Rebekah hanging on the wall. We walked into the living room only to see a small girl. She could not have been more than 14, but I could see a lot of anger in her eyes.
Once she noticed us we were against the wall as well. Elijah and Rebekah shouted at her to let Hope go.
"Why? You have already taken my parents from me. What do you want with us?" She yelled and I looked at her confused.
"We didn't take your parents. My name is Alaric, I come from the Salvatore school for gifted children. We came because of the storms you have cast on San Diego." I said looking at her calmly. She looked at me puzzled.
"I have cast storms on this retched city. And they will not stop until I see my parents again. Now, who are you really?" She hissed glaring at us.
I was very confused, I was used to dealing with Lizzies rage, but she had sympathy for me. This witch clearly did not trust us. I was deep in thought about how to handle this.
Thankfully Hope had gained some strength and was lowering herself from the wall. Elijah and Rebekah tried to keep the witch occupied as Hope did so. Once she was free she knocked the witch out and we all fell to the floor.
I looked first to see that Hope was okay which she was, then to Rebekah and Elijah.
"What the hell was that?" I asked still a little dumbfounded that a small girl could hold that much power.
And even more that the witches seemed to not know anything of her existence. I stood and was gaining my breath, Hope held out her hand and helped me up. We turned to Elijah and Rebekah who were looking a little worried at each other.
"I haven't seen power like that since Davina." Rebekah said and I sighed.
"We should search this place, it might tell us something about who she is." He said and I nodded.
"You three have heightened senses, you do that. I am gonna chain her magic before she wakes up." I said and they nodded and went to work. I went down to the car and grabbed some chains. The blue hue was still standing which confused me a little. The weather had cleared up completely proving for a fact that this witch was the cause for all of this trouble.
I went back up stairs and chained er up, putting her on a chair.
"No luck yet. This is weird, what family besides mine has no family photos?" Hope said walking over to us and I shrugged.
Elijah and Rebekah soon joined us with no luck as well. I sighed and nodded to Hope who understood. She waved her hand and magically woke the girl up. She struggled against the chains but gave up after a little while. Then she just glared at us.
"What do you plan to do with me?" She said and I looked at her puzzled.
"We don't wanna harm you. Like I said my name is Alaric, I work at a school for people like you." I said and she just rolled her eyes at me.
"Yeah right. Look you already took my parents, what do you plan to do with me?" She said again and I sighed not knowing how to convince her that we had nothing to do with her parents disappearing.
"Rebekah, look at her eyes, she seems oddly familiar to me." Elijah said.
They both stared intently at her. Rebekah looked just as confused now as Elijah did.
"She almost reminds me of Kol. But that can't be. They are both long gone." She said and Elijah walked closer to the girl looking at her sternly and kindly, the way only he could.
"What is your name girl?" He asked and her face shifted from angry to intrigued.
"Wait. Why did you come if you don't know who I am?" She said confused.
"We just wanted to know what caused the storm. Now what is your name?" Elijah said again and she looked at him from a moment as if she was trying to read him.
"Depends who is asking." She said and he smirked a little.
"I am Elijah Mikaelson, this is my sister Rebekah and our niece Hope. The man over there as he said is Alaric Saltzman." He said calmly. Her demeanour seemed to completely change when she heard our names.
"What about Niklaus Mikaelson, is he nearby?" She asked and Rebekah walked closer too, smiling kindly.
"He won't bother you trust me." She said grabbing her hand and smiling.
"If he does I will help you. Us girls has to stick together you know." She said giving her shoulder a small squeeze.
The girl nodded still looking at them like she did not trust them. She lifted her hands and pulled a neckless out from under her shirt. It was on a leather thread with a diamond at the end. It was a little oddly shaped, she turned it around to reveal an ancient rune. Elijah and Rebekah was taken aback when they saw this.
"If you are who you say you are, you should know this neckless and what it means. That is what I was told." She said looking at them sternly.
Elijah walked back and Rebekah could not stop herself from starring at her. She walked over to her brother who had his back turned to the girl.
"It can't be Bek, she must have stolen it or something." Elijah said and his sister rolled her eyes.
"Come on Elijah she looks just like them. And that neckless, you can't tell me that isn't the one he had made for her." Rebekah retorted. I looked to Hope who shrugged just as confused as I was at their little discussion.
"I understand your want for this to be true, but you are foolish if you believe this. You know this can't be real Rebekah. It isn't possible." Elijah hissed and Rebekah snorted.
"It happened once. And he was brought back from the dead." She responded. The girl looked as confused as we did.
"Care to tell us what is going on?" I asked and they finally turned back to us.
"You have your fathers eyes don't you?" Elijah said and the girl nodded.
"I have been told that a few times." She said and he looked very happy still a little confused. Rebekah was trying to hold back tears as well. But walked over to her.
"We understand what that neckless means, now child what is your name?" She said smiling at her kindly.
"Francesca." She said sternly.
Rebekah looked to Elijah and he chuckled a little.
"Our brother did love the French, so seems fitting." He said and Rebekah chuckled.
She whispered something to the girl and she nodded before Rebekah released her from her chains. I looked at her confused but she nodded at me calmly, telling me it was okay.
"Now, Francesca, wanna tell us what happened?" She asked and Francesca sighed but nodded.
"Sure. I guess it will be easier if you can look under the cloak." She said and did a small spell the trashed and dark room disappeared and a much lighter and cosier version appeared. I noticed the photos appeared on the mantel. I sat down on the couch confused.
"Can I get you anything? Tea?" she asked and I nodded thanking her. This was all very strange.
She made tea and Rebekah followed her to the kitchen smiling widely. Hope leaned in about to whisper something.
"They said something about brother, you think this could be?"She said and I smiled at her and shrugged.
"Maybe. I don't know, but it would be good for you, being an older sister." I said nudging her and she rolled her eyes but smiled a little at the thought.
I knew that she wanted her family more than she let on. She missed her parents. This could be really good, and if Francesca learned to control her emotions, I think it would really help them both. I was excited on her behalf.
They came back with the tea and I took a cup then made a gesture to let them proceed.
"So what do you want to know?" Francesca said and I shrugged.
"Tell us a little bit about your parents. Do they know you are a witch?" I asked and she chuckled.
"Of course they do. How else do you think they managed a cloaking spell every time I came home. It is blood magic so only we can reveal our true home here. And only blood relatives are able to find it. " She said.
"Tell us a little bit more about it all." Elijah said having figured out a lot but there was still a lot of mystery surrounding the girl, I could tell that much.
"Well, my father almost killed my mother but he revived her and they fled from New Orleans. They got married in Hawaii." She said and Rebekah chuckled.
"Love, we know all of that. Elijah and I was there. After the wedding." Rebekah said and a smirk appeared on the young girls face. I had not known Kol long, but I could definitely see the resemblance in that smirk.
"Well you know how it is. When a man and woman love each other very much." She said smirking Rebekah rolled her eyes and Elijah almost flinched a little.
"How about we skip that as well?" Elijah said and she just chuckled and shrugged, before she continued.
"My mother found out that she was pregnant with me and it was a big mess apparently. Something about a gift from the ancestors but with some rules. They don't talk about it much. But I was born. My magic was very developed from an early age so they knew they needed to cloak it all till I was old enough to control it. Then there was the bloodlust and all of that. Dad taught me to haunt and control it. Snatch, eat, erase right?" She said looking at Rebekah and Elijah who looked at her and a little confused.
"Just like my brother to put such thoughts in your head. Then what?" Rebekah said and Francesca shrugged.
"Well not much. Once I could control the lust and my magic I got to go to school. But two days ago I came home and they were gone. They run a small record store downstairs. But to the untrained eye this is a one story building. I could see that the cloak was still on and a mess. Someone has taken them. I am worried sick about them. Why would anyone want to harm us? We have spent so long hiding who we are. Besides Niklaus, I don't know who wants to hurt us. That part my parents were not big on sharing with me. Not until I got older." She said worried and looked like she was about to cry. She did and when she did I could see rain falling quietly now, but this time inside the house.
Rebekah hugged her and shushed her as she cried.
"Don't worry Fran. We will find them and kill whoever tried to harm your mom and dad. That is the Mikaelson way. We never abandon our own." Rebekah said and Francesca looked up at her and sighed.
"Thank you. I have heard stories about you two. You were always his favourite siblings you know." She said and they smiled. Hope finally opened her mouth with the courage to ask.
"I'm sorry, who are your parents?" She said and Francesca sighed and got up from the chair walking to the mantel and caressed a picture before taking it to Hope.
"Davina and Kol Mikaelson." She said showing the picture of the three of them together. They all looked so happy.
Hope looked up at her smiling at her. She looked to me for guidance I imagine and I smiled and nudged her. I wanted her to know her cousin, now that we knew one existed. This could be really good for her. I hope she comes back with us, that might help Hope open up a bit more, if she had to be a good example for her younger cousin.
"That makes us cousins. I have always wanted a cousin!" She said hugging the girl smiling Francesca smiled and hugged a little as well.
"That is cool actually. But I still really wanna find my mom and dad." She said and Hope pulled back nodding and smiled.
"Don't worry we will find them." Hope said I got up and sighed looking at Francesca.
"Well Francesca, while we all look for them, do you want to come stay with Hope and I at the Salvatore academy. We have an excellent witch program." I said smiling and she looked from Rebekah, to Elijah to Hope and lastly me. I could see she was a little scared but excited.
"Okay."
A/N: Hi, so I have actually been writing on this fic for a while, so there is gonna be a bit of a rapid post rate at first, because I have those chapters ready. Also I just really hope you enjoy the story, if you do or have an criticism or any ways you want this fic to go, please tell me. I always wanna talk.