Sun shined through the blinds of the open bedroom jarring Charlotte's awake forcing her upright. She took a look around the room with white walls, a bed and single dresser. She immediately knew it was not her own but but she was familiar enough with the house by now to know where she was.
She was able to drop her guard but only slightly until due to no knowing who brought her there in the first place and why. She checked the pocket of her jeans and saw that they were dirty and tattered. The events from the night before slowly returned and with that the it answer the question of how she ended up at the Mikealson place.
She remembered the drug in her system taken effect after the adrenaline wore off and she was sure Hayley was no longer on danger. She collapsed into Klaus's arms before it all went dark. He must have brought me here, she thought before a slight movement from the corner of her eyes had her reaching from a weapon on instant but froze and slowly relaxed when she saw Hayley.
As if reading her mind she said, "we had to wait for the poison to leave your system." She handed her a change of clothes which she accepted. "And of course we didn't know where to take or where you come from. I don't even know your name and yet you keep risking your life to save me and I don't know why."
She got up of the bed and came to stop in front in front of her, "it's what family does," Hayley turned to her with a smiling and followed her. She showed her to the shower where she could bathed and change then left her to it.
She returned when Klaus did with Sophie and knocked on the door. She stepped out pulling her shirt down. "Klaus is back to question Sophie. Thought you might want to be there when he does." She stepped back allowing Charlotte some room. She closed the door behind her and followed Hayley down but kept in the background.
"Ah, well. I grow founder of this child by the day."
"Sophie, look," she looked to Rebekah who she sense was getting impatient and leaned against the wall. "- promised Elijah that I would protect the Mikaelson miracle baby whilst he's try and win your witch Davina's loyalty. Why don't you just tell me how extreme this faction is?"
Charlotte was interested in knowing that herself but Sophie interest laid elsewhere.
"Elijah's talking to Davina?" Charlotte could see how important Davina was to Sophie. It made her wonder why that was.
"I imagine as we speak."
She didn't seem too alarmed about that but she was shocked, "I'd imagine she'd have a lot to say about them."
"Do tell." She looked over to Klaus to see that he was intrigued by the thought of the group but knew he wouldn't have been if he knew what they were capable of and what that could mean for his daughter.
"My sister was devoted like our parents," she decided not to focus on that particular part of the past and instead focused on the sound of Sophie's voice so she wouldn't be brought back to it. "Our upbringing was very strict, which drove me nuts. The minute I turned 21 I left the Quarter to travel...and play. But I wanted to be a chef so I came back to Rousseau's. That's where Jane Anne found me and told me that the elders decided to go along with the Harvest."
"What the hell is a blood Harvest?"
Charlotte looked to Rebekah, "It's a ritual the French Quarter witch coven does every three centuries," she stayed leaned up against the wall as she explained what they other's didn't know, "to keep the ties to their ancestral magic. It's like a replenishment. The prepare all of the girls of the coven for the ritual but only four are chosen out of the group. They make them believe that it's an honor. It isn't."
Sophie studies her closer as something starts to come back to her but the sound of Klaus phone ringing makes the small spark that she had created disappear an
"Marcel," Charlotte leaned up from the wall and stepped outside to call her brother to let him know that she was alright and to fill him in on the faction of extremists that they were all too familiar with and who had went after Hayley. With that being said, it was more important now than ever that he got Davina to trust him so she would help him although unknowingly.
He assured her that was slowly beginning to gain her trust which was progress and much needed if they were going to use her to save Hayley before Agnes could find another way to harm Hayley. She also let him know that Elijah was awake and well that that if he could, he should also try to set up a meeting with him so they could discuss Hayley's situation in private.
So far, Klaus had shown good will towards Hayley and concern for his child but she also knew that he craved power and he has proven numerous times that he couldn't be trusted to look out for the well being of his family by the constant need to dagger them and put them in a magical slumber for years. Who's to say what he would do once his child his born and she wasn't going to sit by and play Russian Roulette with either of their lives.
"I'll see what I can do," Jax replied after hearing about the situation with Elijah.
"There's something else," something that she hadn't mentioned until then because she wasn't sure if she should given how he'd felt but the situation she had gotten herself into and how close she had came to Agnes. "Last night wasn't a full moon we both saw that but I heard and saw wolves when out I was out there last night. And I think, no I know it's them. It has to be."
"But you still want to see for yourself," Jax knew there was no possibility in which she wouldn't want to see what she could find out for herself. Especially if they were who they thought, who she seemed certain that they were, and he had a feeling she had been right.
"I know we made a deal that I wouldn't go looking for them until we found a way to deal with Marcel and Agnes but Jax I saw them. They're out there. I know that they're out there. I can't just ignore that and neither will Marcel. He has to know about last night already even if he doesn't know about Hayley's involvement he's already on the phone with Klaus and I bet he's already found about the dead witches and the wolves being involved and there's only a matter of time before he connects the dots back to Hayley."
"This really means a lot to you," he didn't have to ask, he could tell in her voice and he was surprised that she hadn't already went looking for the answers she desired and then apologizing about it later which was her normal reporte.
"The only reason that I haven't already gone is because of my promise to you. I know how important it is to you that the witches don't find out I'm back."
"It's because I don't want the same thing that happened to momma happening to you. I wouldn't survive it."
"I know." She couldn't remember what it was like for them when they're mother was slowly starting to get sick being only a toddler then, "but she knew that it was something that would forever haunt him. "It's why I won't go out there if you don't want me to."
"No," she felt disappointed but she knew that no matter how much she wanted to find them, nothing was more important to her than keeping her promise to him knowing what he went through with their mother. "You should go. If anything it'll give Hayley more protection and keep you out of harm's way."
She eyed Klaus as he left. "When have you've ever known me to do that." Klaus car speed away.
"For my piece of my mind let's just pretend that will."
She smiled softly, "whatever you say big brother." She reached out for Sophie as she hung up. "Where do you think your going?"
"The Bayou," she tried to pull her arm free but had a trouble doing so. "I need to consecrate the remains of the dead witches before we lose the link to their magic."
"And if something happens to you something happens to Hayley," she let her wrist go, "and I can't let that happen."
"Well you're more than welcome to come." She knew it was the only way she was going to get there before sundown. "It's clear what Hayley and her baby means to you which means maybe you also care about the wolves. What do you think will happen if Marcel finds them first?"
She had already considered that and she knew the outcome wouldn't be good. "Go, gather what you need. I'll meet you at the cemetery." She needed to get Hayley to come along with them though she sure it wasn't going to be hard to convince her to. The Mikaelson had already proven that they couldn't keep her safe and it was better for both Sophie and Hayley to be with her so she knew Hayley was safe.
"You're going out to the Bayou aren't you?" Hayley had already been standing the door and heard the whole conversation.
"Yeah, and you're coming with me. After last night, there's no way I'm trusting them to protect you two. Even if I did, you'd probably go out there on your own. It's what I would do and with Agnes still out there I don't want you left alone."
"You're really afraid of Agnes aren't you?"
"I've seen what she could do. Last night was just one part of it. She's not going to stop until you're baby is dead. And I won't stop until she is," she turned towards the door and opened it. Hayley followed her out so they could meet up with Sophie at the cemetery.
She wasn't too happy to see that Charlotte had brought Hayley and expressed her concerns about Hayley coming along. "Already got assaulted by Klaus once today. Don't want a repeat of that."
Hayley blocks her exit. "The whole reason I came back here was to protect Hayley and to find my family. Now I know Marcel ran the werewolves out of the Quarter into the Bayou after he forced a witch to curse them. And last night, I'm pretty sure that some guardian-angel-wolf saved our lives. So either we both coming with you or the magic you're trying to get from those dead witches go poof. Your call."
She stares at the both of them clearly annoyed by their stubbornness rolls her eyes and sighs resigned to having them tag along. Charlotte kept her ears and eyes out for Marcel and Klaus. Hayley walks up beside her and she looked at her sideways before returning her gaze back in front of her.
"I suppose you have a lot questions you want to ask about the pack that Marcel chased deep into Bayou and about your family. I wish I could give them to but I'm afraid I don't know anymore than you do."
"How about we start with your name and then go from there?"
After a long pause said, "Charlotte."
"So what, you like my guardian wolf protector or something?"
She smiled softly at her word choice, "something like that. I made a promise to someone close to me to look after you. Only before I could, you were already gone and it took a really time to find you. My only wish was that I could have found you sooner. Keep you from being on your own all these years. Maybe you could have avoided all of this."
"We're here." They come to a stop where the witches were killed. Their bodies are all bloodied and ripped apart, and a dismembered head lies near the bodies. Sophie, who looks sick, kneels down to dig around her bag for the ingredients she needs to consecrate her fellow witches.
Hayley sees a huge paw-print in the mud. In a nearby tree, there are three bloody scratches in the bark. "Whoa"
"Is that a wolf track?"
They hear the sound of crunching footsteps nearby and Charlotte turns in the direction of the sound to see a white male with a thin lean built. He looks at the carnegie before him and then looks at Charlotte.
He gets scared and immediately runs away with vampire speed but Charlotte chases him down before he could far and tears into his neck with her canines and then drops him wiping her mouth.
Her canines were retracted and her eyes where it's normal shade once here. She watched their shocked reactions before picking up a nearby branch and jamming it into his heart.
She then turned to Sophie walking back to them. "whatever you're going to do, make it quick."
The walk back to Sophie's truck was done in quiet. They all had their own things to think about. Hayley chose voice one of her concerns to Sophie when they reached her truck that had been parked near Charlotte's bike. "Those people, all this, because of a vision about my baby you don't think is true?"
"Look, I love Sabine," Sophie began to pack her truck, "but she's the witch equivalent of a drama queen. I've learned to take little stock in whatever she says or sees. Just kinda wish she'd kept her mouth shut."
"The Harvest ritual," Charlotte sat on her bike as Hayley continued to ask questions, You said you didn't believe in it. Were you right?"
"No. I saw it with my own eyes. It was working. It was real."
"So, how can you be so sure Sabine's vision isn't?"
Sophie doesn't have an answer to this question.
Charlotte see's Hayley to the car and turns to Sophie, "get her home safe."
"You're not coming?"
She looks over at Hayley, "later. I got make sure there's nothing in the clinic that can lead back to you in case Marcel comes sniffing again." She taps the hood of the car as she stands up backs away as Sophie pulls away. She watches them from a distance and heads towards the clinic.
She shows up the Mikaelson's later as promise and gets greeted by Klaus, "Your ears must have been burning. We were just discussing you and the little excursion you lead out to the Bayou today."
"I was doing what I came here for," she glanced at Hayley who had come back to the room, "protecting Hayley. She's still linked to Sophie and after the two attempts on her life already I didn't think it was safe that she'd be left here with you."
"Brilliant job you've done so far, really job well done. I commend you on your gallant effort to protect Hayley and her unborn child. Yet I still can't help but wonder why you would chose to risk your life to protect hers."
She pulled her jacket down from her arm and turned to show them her back. "Does this answer you question?" She pulled it back up when she saw her point been made when she saw the look on her faces after seeing the crescent moon birthmark on her shoulder. "Hayley and I are from the same pack. Those wolves that live out in a Bayou are all that's left after Marcel had a witch's curse them to stay in their animal state, wolves"
Klaus was more than a bit skeptical of what she wa saying and had no trouble saying it, "and yet you here you stand to tell you take, care to tell us all how you've managed to escape such a fate."
"I have werewolf blood running through me, but I also have that of the French quarter witches too." The implications of her words, if true suggested only one thing. "My mom had an affair with a wolf. The witches killed her for it. They saw it as a betrayal to their kind. So you can only imagine what they think of me," She looked at Klaus, the one person who would understand, "which is why I know that Agnes won't stop until your child is dead. It's why we can't let them have Davina. They get her, they finish the harvest, and she'll never be safe."
"Why is Davina so important to the witches?" If what Sophie said was true, and Hayley had feeling it was, she couldn't understand why she wouldn't want to help.
"Because she's the last Harvest girl left alive," they all turned to Elijah. "Everything that brought us here to New Orleans was a lie. This story that Sophie Deveraux fabricated, this struggle for control of the French Quarter, this war between vampires and witches, wasn't over territory at all, this was over Davina. Eight months ago, Sophie Deveraux and her sister Jane-Anne lost everything. Now, four months after that, a young pregnant girl wanders into their restaurant. Suddenly, all hope is renewed. Jane-Anne actually sacrificed her life so that her sister can use you to find Davina. If Sophie Deveraux is successful in capturing Davina, she can return Jane-Anne's daughter back to life. We thought we'd come here to wage a war for power. This is about family. In order to return her niece to life, Sophie Deveraux will fight to the death. That makes her more dangerous than anyone."
