Chapter 3: Stroke of Righteousness

Parked next to my Trans-Am is a 1970 Dodge Charger, painted just like the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard. It's a good and trustworthy car, but there is a bit of a twist to it. When Balthazar and I had first been fixing this thing not too long after we had gotten it, Balthazar had accidentally cut his hand on an engine component, causing a little bit of his blood to fall into the engine. Well, angel's blood must be the weirdest substance ever in existence, because when Balthazar and I drove it around the next day, I had asked a question out loud, when, much to my and Balthazar's astonishment, that dang car responded. As in, it answered the question. Odd, I know, but it happened, so that's that.

I opened the driver door and slid into the driver seat. My head dropped onto the steering wheel, and I let out a sigh.

"Rough day?" came the voice of the vehicle. At first, it startled me a good bit, but I relaxed as I replied, "Rough with a capital R."

"And why would that be, darlin'?"

"Mikael Mikaelson is the problem. He's such an-" (let's just say I called him a seven-letter word starting with an a).

"Quite the salty language you're using there."

I blew a heavy breath. "Sorry. It's just that he is."

"Well, at least your swearing problem has died down quite a bit. Balthazar was worried that it would follow you all these years."

"The good thing is, I haven't added any more salt to my vocabulary." I grinned. "Anywho, go ahead and pop the hood. I wanna check to see if that rattling noise can be solved."

With that, the orange hood popped open and I stepped out of the vehicle to take a look. One of the plugs had a loose head on it, which was likely the source of the rattling noise. "Looks like one of the heads of the plugs is loose, Lee. I'll have to replace this one."

"And this is the fifth time that that plug in particular has popped loose this month," Lee griped. "Go ahead and remove it, for all I care."

"I would, but this plug is too valuable. Can't risk it." I went over to the tool wall and grabbed a wrench from the rack, putting it to the loose head and twisting it off.

Silence pressed on around us, and I could hear the wind whistling through the weeping willows planted just outside the mansion, which helped to soothe my anger and focus on the task at hand. After about a half hour, I stood back, wiping my hand, now coated with oil, on an old rag and feeling generally pleased at fixing the problem. "Alright, Lee, I removed the loose plug- actually, loose plugs. You should be good. Start 'er up!"

Lee's engine purred to life, and I carefully tuned my vampire hearing to make sure there was no rattling. To my delight, all I could hear was the purr of the engine. "Excellent! Well, you can cut it off. I am going to go back inside and shower off. Wish me luck with that stubborn bull inside."

"May God go with you, Abira. May God go with you."

I stepped out of the shower a little while later, only to hear a car pull up in the drive and come to a complete stop. Huh. I thought no one was coming today. With the towel still wrapped around my head, I opened the door to my room and went down the massive stairs, stopping abruptly when I saw a familiar bleach blonde female walk in the double doors.

"Haniel!" I called down, gleefully, causing the woman to look up, wide eyed. She relaxed when she saw me. "Abira, my dear, it is so good to see you after all these years!"

I rushed down the steps and hugged her tightly. Upon pulling apart, I asked, "So how were those missions in Moscow and Tehran? I heard you were struggling against some stronger demonic forces in Moscow."

"Good grief, there had to have been about 20 different divisions in Moscow, especially around Red Square and even as far as Siberia. Apparently the demons there still enjoyed the atheistic atmosphere, so my garrison and I were shipped out to go and put them down. Tehran went a little smoother- just some more minor level demons there, but there were still a large amount of forces there." She sighed. "But, that aside, how is the bite investigation going? I remember a couple of my lieutenants were telling me about it back in '91. Once my deployments ended I decided I would come and help."

"Oh boy, where to begin. Well, we do have a good informant, but he is more stubborn than a bull and meaner than a devil. Mikael Mikaelson, that's who we have."

"Mikaelson? Good grief, the amount of times I have heard that name whispered amongst some of my superiors. Troublemakers, they say. Apparently Elijah has had multiple encounters with some of my superiors and with some of my captains. Quite the diplomat, but they detected he has a dark red violent streak running through his soul. And the one they call Niklaus- the hybrid everyone thinks is biting the people around here- I have encountered and actually fought when he was attacking tourists here back in 1919 and 1921. His violence is much greater than even Mikael's. But boy, did my forces and I give him a nice wallop."

"How do you know his violence is greater than Mikael's? Mikael seems like the kind of person terrorists are afraid of. Even the vampires around here are terrified of him, and Niklaus always seems afraid when he talks about him."

"Well, Mikael has been the subject of a few of my missions- mainly to keep an eye on him and give him a whack upside the head if he tried to harm any humans. When he burned down the opera house in 1919, my garrison and Michael's garrison went after him and trapped him near Bourbon Street. Oddly enough, he did not attack us as we expected- either he knew what we were or he just had no interest in attacking us. Anyway, we were able to open dialogue with him. Seemed to be very calm and intelligent, but not exactly a peaceful specimen, if I had to admit it. Michael was given an order to let him go, but had a couple of dominions keep track of his location."

"Wow."

The sound of footsteps came from behind me, and I turned to see Balthazar standing behind me. "Haniel!" he exclaimed joyously, rushing up and giving her a massive hug. She laughed a bit out of shock, then hugged him tightly as well. "Uuf! It's so good to see you again, Balthazar! We missed you over in Tehran."

"High Command has stationed me here for quite a while, mostly to help with this bite thing."

"How many bodies did you say were drained?"

"About 20. Thankfully, the number has stalled there."

It was then that one of the power angel guards came down and stopped in front of Balthazar, saluting for a quick second in acknowledgement of Haniel's presence before turning to Balthazar. "Mikael is demanding when he needs to give the information. He's been pacing for hours in his room, cursing practically everyone in this house- not that it surprises me."

"Bring him down to the basement conference room as soon as you can. Haniel, Abira, let's head down there."

The basement conference room is actually much larger than you may think; the walls of the room are painted in a light cream, with a dark hardwood floor underneath, covered by a light blue rug. Bright fluorescent lights hover in the ceiling above a large and wide wooden table flocked by cushy chairs. A television hangs on the wall behind the head chair.

Balthazar sat in the head chair, with me and Haniel flanking him on either side. We pored over the documents of the bites reported by various humans and angels alike, scanning and checking the nature of these bites before Mikael came in, a guard following close behind. He took a seat next to me, and I shot him a dirty side glance, which, of course, he returned with impunity. "About time I got out of that room," he muttered to me, shooting a glance at Balthazar. However, when his eyes rested on Haniel, they widened with shock and recognition. "You." Haniel shot him a cold glance when she looked over at him.

"Managed to stay out of the radar, Mikael? Oh wait, you bit that human just recently, so you are still high on our list." She ended her sentence with an emphasis on the t. "Be glad you're still alive- Balthazar is one of the best warriors we have, and he would normally go straight for the kill on creatures like you."

"And High Command would be on my tail- don't forget that," Balthazar chuckled. "Right, let's stop with the passive aggressiveness and cut straight to business." Clicking the power button on the remote brought up the image of one of the bites. I would go into detail, but since there are likely audiences sensitive to that kind of stuff (and because I do not like going into detail on them myself), I will refrain from sharing the details.

"This was bite number 1, taken in June 1991. Young female of about 23 years of age. The body was found near the edge of the bayou, but no blood was left."

Mikael's eyes narrowed as he scanned the bite. The television then went on to another picture.

"Bite numbers 2 and 3, taken on Halloween 1992. This time found near the Mikaelson compound, but when some of our superiors went to investigate, the place had been abandoned for some time."

The television showed through all twenty bites, ending just recently in 2015. To me, there seemed to be no particular pattern related with the bites, but the majority of them were actually found near the graveyard and bayou. Even Mikael was baffled at this.

"So, Mikael, can you confirm or deny that these were indeed the bites of Niklaus? If so, he will be hunted down and prosecuted, and likely executed to protect the humans. If not, we will still maintain a watch on him, but he will not be executed."

Mikael peered at the photos on the television, carefully scrutinizing each and every one, sometimes twice. Finally, after about an hour of scanning them, he shook his head. "These are not the bites of Niklaus. Besides, based on what the little witch Davina has told me, Klaus did not come back to New Orleans until 2010, maybe even later."

Balthazar's brow furrowed in thought, and Haniel took to examining the physical photos. "Do you have any indication on whether there are more hybrids in New Orleans?"

"The only other one is Hayley, right?" I asked Mikael.

He glanced at me, then nodded. "She is the only other one there is in New Orleans, and she was here back in the 2000s after returning from Mystic Falls."

"Could these bites be her, then?" Haniel inquired.

"It is possible that they could be, but then again I have not had the opportunity to exactly converse with her- not necessarily on good terms, her and I."

There was a brief moment of thick silence that followed, all of us burrowed in thought. Finally, I spoke up.

"I could contact Elijah, and maybe even Marcel, to see if there have been any suspicious happenings that they have heard about. I could bring that information back here to you guys."

Balthazar and Haniel looked at one another and nodded. "That seems like a good idea," Balthazar remarked. "I could get into my contacts and look through anything my superiors might have regarding the supernatural happenings in the area."

"Wait- how do you have a contact with my son?" Mikael inquired, suspicion dripping from every word.

"That is my business and my business alone, bucko," I replied calmly. "We are kind of "friends" I guess you could say."

He narrowed his eyes at me, but said nothing.

"Then it's settled. Abira, you and Mikael will go and see Elijah and Marcel to get more info on any supernatural mess-" Balthazar began, but was cut off by Mikael.

"Wait- you want me to work with her?" He spat the words as though they were poison to his tongue. "I'd rather stay or do it alone! I can handle both my son and that fool Marcel"

"Well, too bad. You two are vital to this investigation, and people are losing their lives, and families are grieving. You will cooperate, otherwise I will smite you here and now," Balthazar retaliated in the iciest tone I ever heard him use, and I could have sworn, for the breadth of a second, that his eyes started to glow blue before returning to their original color. Even my heart started racing a bit. His face was red, and he was leaning very close to Mikael in a very threatening manner.

Mikael grew considerably quiet, perhaps shocked both by the ferocity of the tone and the fact that there was another supernatural being in the room that was more powerful than he that could end his immortality in a split second. Finally, he nodded. "Very well, then."

Balthazar resumed his original position, the color on his face becoming the normal color again. "Go get some rest," he ordered, before looking over at me. His expression softened a small bit. "You will both need it."

I nodded, and stood up to leave, and I heard Mikael's footsteps coming through behind me, along with the footsteps of the guard. I paused and allowed him and the guard to pass, as I heard Haniel and Balthazar conversing in the conference room a good few feet behind me,

"Why High Command did not let me smite him the minute he found out that the bites were not those of Niklaus Mikaelson is unknown to me, Haniel."

"You do realize how key that man is, right?"

"No, I'm afraid not. Other than an 'expert' for this case, he has no further use by me "

"He is the father of all vampires, Balthazar. Could you imagine how disastrous it would be if the demons grabbed hold of him? Someone as prideful as he would surely be ruthless and cruelest of the cruel. It's practically an arms race."

"Wasn't he that already before we intervened?"

"Perhaps, but I see a stroke of righteousness in him."

The rest of the conversation I did not hear, as they closed the door and their voices became muffled. I blinked and quietly muttered to myself, "Maybe there is something righteous in him. But I am not seeing it at all," before turning and walking back upstairs and going to bed.