Family is power. They swore it to each other a thousand years ago with a pledge to remain loyal. Now, centuries has passed and the bonds of family is broken. Time, tragedy, and hunger for power have torn the Mikaelson family apart.
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Lured back to a city he help build nearly a hundred years ago, Klaus returns to the city he once called home to find it on the brink of war and in the midst, a pregnant werewolf carrying his child. He must fight to protect what he holds the closes while trying to regain what he was forced to leave behind. And he wasn't the only one, with witches, vampires, and even humans, fighting for control of the city, who will come on top in the supernatural game of chess.
The sounds of nearby forest animals could be heard scurrying about the woods as two motorcycles rolled to a stop one after the other. The first motorcyclist set her feet on the ground to anchor both herself and the bike staying put as they visually searched the area.
They hadn't seen what they came searching for so they continued on down the dirt road following the tire tracks until it turned into footprints. Together, they dismounted the bikes after making sure the bikes were properly secured and the engine off.
"Looks like the tracks end here," the owner of the first bike said bending down to examine the tracks while the second rider kept a lookout for anything or anyone that might be lurking. "And continues on in that direction," he points north and the look out turns in the direction he points. "She wasn't alone"
"How many?" The second rider turned her brown hazel eyes on him and he stands up.
"From the different shoe patterns and indentations," she walked beside him squatting to study the footprints and saw that some had swirls while others were more smooth and flat, "I'd say three or four. But why lure her here, there's nothing out here for miles?"
"Nothing except the cemetery," she stood having put the pieces together.
"What could they possibly want with her?" It didn't make sense. Werewolves and witches weren't allies and they weren't known for being friends. Though the way the witches had come upon this particular werewolf wasn't exactly in the friendliest of ways.
"I don't know," she shook her head, but she knew just the person to ask to found out.
Lafayette cemetery was a place Charlotte Gray's knew all too well so she thought that it was only fitting that it was the reason behind her recent return. Not only was it the reason she left New Orleans twenty years ago, it was also the place where The French Quarter witches practiced their ancestral magic.
"It doesn't look like anyone's home" Jaxon, Charlotte's older brother said walking around the small tomb the French Quarter witches were know to hide out at. "It appears that no one has been here for a few days, including Hayley."
"I think I know where she went." Jaxon turned to see her holding a white sheet that she found while searching the tomb. He walked over to her as she exclaimed. "I recognize the scent on the sheet."
"One of the witches?"
"No, someone else. Someone far worse"
"Tell me," he demanded.
"Not here," She whispered looking over her shoulder fearing someone would walk in any moment and discover them. "We need to get out of the French Quarter, get somewhere safe."
He answered with a nod noticing the severity of the situation even if he didn't understand the reason behind it, "I know just the place."
Charlotte followed Jaxon to a maroon house just outside the quarter that looked to be abandoned. She said as much as she pulled off her helmet and studied the structure in front of her. It was a three story manor with vines covering the front and sides and shrubs out front.
"That's the point." Jax answered her comment about it looking abandon got off the bike. He at the front door by the time she gotten off her bike and when she walked over he was grabbing a key out from of a rock hidden in the shrubs.
"How did you know that where's there?" she inquired watching as he stuck the key in the door.
"Did you know the people who lived here?"
"Yea," he turned the knob and pushed up the door and looked back at her. "We did." He stepped inside and flicked a switch but the house remained dark though it was no surprise. Gray's manor had gone inhabited for the last twenty years. So Charlotte wasn't surprised about the lack of lighting or the amount of dust that had collected over the furniture when she pulled the covers. Jax looked for candles as she uncovered the furniture.
She began to look around trying to find something familiar about a place she hadn't stepped foot in since she was five. She spotted a table full of pictures against the wall behind the couch and walked towards the table. She picked up a framed photo after removing the cobwebs and dust. She saw a smiling blonde toddler holding a brunette infant and immediately recognized the smiling blonde boy as her brother. Meaning that she was the infant he was holding, which also meant the women sitting beside them on the couch with matching blonde hair was their mom.
"I found some candles. They were in a box in the attic" Jax abruptly stopped when he saw Charlotte looking at a picture of them as children. He sat the box on the table beside the couch and stood behind her looking over her shoulder. "I remember when that was taken. You had just came home from the hospital and mom wanted to get a picture of you for your baby book but you refused to cooperate with her. She was about to give up and was putting the camera away and told me to look after you. You took one look at me and smiled. It was a look of complete trust."
She turned to him, "and I always will," she looked back at the picture she still held in her hand. "I just wish I had memories the way you do." She turned and sat the picture back down walking over to the box of candles.
He walked beside her picking up a few of his own. "My memories serve to make things more painful for me." She looked at him. "Remembering how things were also means I have to live with knowing they will never be like that again. You're lucky you don't remember anything."
"I do. It's just none of my memory's are happy." She said studying the crystal candle in her hand. "They're all bad." She placed the candles on the table removing the box and lit it bringing some light into the room.
She did the same for the rooms downstairs as well while Jax took the upstairs room making sure that they weren't next to anything flammable.
"I've finished placing candles in the hall and upstairs room."
"And downstairs is lit up like a Christmas tree," she said tossing the box on the couch. "But we seriously have to think about a less fire hazard way of bringing light into this place especially since we might be here longer than either of us thought."
"Tell me," he quickly moved to sit in the couch in front of her. "Who else did you else scent in the tombs other than Hayley?"
"An original," she sat down in front of him on the coffee table, "and not just any original, but none other Niklaus Mikealson"
"Are you certain?"
"I'd remember that smell anywhere" she had ran across that smell only once in her life when they had tracked Hayley to a small town in Virginia Mystic Falls. Their trail lead them to the house of only two, one that was the house of another werewolf Tyler Lockwood and the home that of the Mikaelson Clan.
She got up no longer able to sit concerned over the news."And if The Originals are back it's for a reason, and whatever that reason is it's clear that Hayley and the witches are part of it." She turned to him. "It's also mean that it's safe for them to come back and that can only mean one thing"
Jax knew what that one thing was and became alarmed. "You think Klaus finally did it? You think he finally was able to kill Mikael?"
She knew that would be the only reason why Klaus would ever come back to New Orleans.
"Yes, which means there is no other weapon forged that can kill an original. Mikael was the only thing Klaus was afraid of and now that he's dead they can finally stop running and build a home. New Orleans would be the best place for them to start. This was the place they were the happiest. They helped build this city to what it is now. They had a life here, a home. Before Mikael was finally able to track them down."
"You think they've come back to reclaim what they've lost? What was taken from them?"
"Yes" she said with certainty.
"And if Michael is really dead? How do you expect we get Hayley away from them when he was the only thing that they were ever afraid of?"
"I don't know" she didn't even know what connected her to them in the first place. "But I'm not about to lose her not when I've come this close to getting everything I've ever wanted. We've been through too much just to stop now."
"Still begs the question what do we do?"
"We don't know enough to do anything and we can't risk Hayley's life anymore than it already is. We have to know more before we act. Not knowing could get all of us killed." Without knowing Hayley's role, they couldn't act until all the facts had been gathered and a plan set in motion.
Jax gave it some thought. "I bet Klaus's old friend Marcel would know. After all, Klaus taught him everything he knows. Maybe we should pay him a little visit."
"We should," she agreed. "But only to watch. I have a feeling Marcel is as much in the dark about what Klaus is up to as we are. And Klaus can't be too happy that Marcel deserted him and took over his city. We may be able to use this to our advantage."
"How?"
"Now that he no longer has anything to fear from his father nothing can stop him from reclaiming the city and we both know Marcel isn't going to be too accommodating which could only lead to one thing. War, and while Marcel and Klaus are duking it out to become king of the city were going to take it from them."
"How?"
"Oh by doing what I do best." She stood behind her brother placing her hands on his shoulder, "Stirring up trouble, causing a little mayhem, and all destroying an empire in the process."
"As long as you leave Agnes to me."
"I promise you brother you will have your revenge and so much more. We're going to take back what's ours and we're going to make them pay," she wrap her arms around his neck placing her chin on his shoulder. "We're going to make them all pay."