Elijah had been chained up in the same manner as Oliver, also completely unconscious.
"Wake up, brother," Nik shook him. "Elijah!"
"He won't wake," Esther had entered. "Not yet, which gives you and I one last chance to discuss my offer. Although I really wish you hadn't brought her,"
"You promised me Elijah's safe return. Or was that a lie just like that ghoulish atrocity outside claiming to be my father, back from the dead," he sneered.
I moved closer to Elijah and tried at the very least to keep the shackles from pulling anymore skin from his wrist. "Elijah, wake up," I whispered. "I've seen your other brother. Kol is alive, he doesn't look like you anymore. We just need to get rid of your parents, and then we can see Rebekah again." I knew I had awful bedside manner, but I didn't know what else I could do or say.
"Your father's return is real," Esther told her son. "I pulled him from the Otherside right before it collapsed and placed him in the bayou among other wolves and I used the execution of one of his own to draw him here, where I knew he'd find you."
"To what end beside my torment?" Nik growled.
"I brought him here to be the father you never had, to teach you to be the man you always longed to be. Once you are remade as a werewolf you can join him," she spoke with her forked tongue.
Nik wrinkled his nose at her. "His return changes nothing."
"It changes everything," Esther countered. "It is my gift to you, Niklaus. This offer is your last chance at salvation. Reject me now and you will live out your endless days unloved and alone. Do not refuse me out of some ancient spite."
"Not spite, hatred," Nik corrected her. "A pure and perfect hatred that is greater now than the day I first took your life."
I held Elijah's head up although he was still unresponsive and pretended he was watching the scene with me.
"Why?" Esther cried. "After all I've done to explain to you, why must you persist?"
A primal sound came from the back of Nik's throat and in a moment he had his mother pinned against the wall and was squeezing her throat. "You came for my child! My daughter! Your own blood!"
"You. don't. understand," she managed to choked out.
"My child!" he growled again.
"Niklaus, I had to," she pleaded.
Nik only squeezed tighter. "You declared war when you came after my family and for that I will make you suffer as only I can. After all, I am my mother's son." He tossed her aside and came over to me and Elijah.
I pointed at the doll that hung above and Nik pulled it down, simultaneously freeing his brother. I picked the freed Elijah up and threw him over my shoulder to carry him out of the cemetery. He was still unconscious when we got back to the house, and I gently laid him out on his bed. If he was human I would have thought he had a fever; he was sweating and mumbling incoherently. I stood in the doorway and watched as Nik placed a hand on Elijah's forehead, attempting to force his way into his brother's mind, but was thrown back.
"What are you doing?" Hayley brushed past me and demanded.
Nik wiped blood from his nose, slightly surprised. "Trying to enter Elijah's thoughts to wake him. Esther has locked me out," he answered.
"Is this rash a side effect of the witchy acid trip he's on?" Hayley pulled down the collar of his shirt, revealing a strange pattern on his neck.
"I haven't seen this since I was a child," Nik examined it more closely. "Our father would return home from battle more blindly temperamental than usual and Esther would use the petals of a rare Morloch Orchid to put him to sleep. She would mend his mind with a spell and then wake him with roots of the same plant. If she has access to it now, than perhaps it also stays in the bayou. You stay here with Arti and your wolves and mind the fort."
"Klaus I'd rather rip your mother's head off," Hayley responded.
"Stay clear of her," Nik ordered. "I mean it, Hayley. She already got to you once. What would happein if Elijah woke to find you were a victim of her madness?"
"I won't go after her, I promise," mumbled Hayley.
"What happened to invoke this new found rage?" I asked her after Nik had left.
"She killed Oli," Hayley hissed.
"But we got him out."
The hybrid shook her head. "He was hexed. He died anyway."
"Fuck!" I growled and flipped over the desk that was in the room and it crashed into the wall, splintering into several pieces.
"I've learned a few things from Esther. I'm not going after her; I'll go after everything that she loves," Hayley spoke to both me and Elijah.
I went with her to find other creatures daft enough to join our mission. We found Aiden and then headed to Marcellus's loft.
"Where's your alpha?" he asked us.
"Unavailable," Hayley answered.
"So you brought Junior Varsity," Marcellus sneered. "I'm getting kind of sick of you using my place as a den for wayward wolves."
"We're going after Finn and thought you might be interested in spilling some blood," I grinned.
"I remember you being worse than Kol," the vampire responded. "I'm listening."
We took it as an invitation to sit. "Well it's not going to be easy," Aiden spoke. "He's surrounded by a pack of juiced up wolves. Does he have a weakness?"
Marcellus grinned. "He does, actually, and I have her on speed dial. He's got a thing for Cami."
"Klaus will go ballistic if we get Cami involved in this," Hayley said and I had to agree.
"Klaus ain't here," Marcellus pointed out. "And Cami, well she's got this thing about people telling her what she can and can't do. I trust you of all people understand." He put his phone to his ear and called the girl.
Conveniently, there was a map of the town including the pub where Finn wanted to meet Cami for a date. "He won't be unprotected. There'll be wolves positioned here and here." Aiden pointed on the map.
"Can we keep this ally open?" Marcellus also pointed.
"Great, I'll wait there and rip Vincent's head off," Hayley agreed.
"Nah, I wouldn't. He'll body jump," Marcellus rejected her idea.
"His head stays on," the blonde human entered carrying a file box. "He'll have a hard time answering questions without it."
I wrinkled my nose; I didn't want to talk to Finn. I threw off the lid of the box, curious what she brought that could have been any help.
"Sweet. It's a big box of dusty old junk; we're saved," Josh said, peering inside.
Aiden tried to conceal his laughter as Cami explained the box. "They're dark objects my uncle left for me. I've been cataloguing them according to Kieran's notes. As far as I can tell these can be used against witches specifically."
Marcellus reached in and pulled out a set of iron shackles.
"Kinky," commented Hayley.
"I remember these," Marcellus smiled. "A hundred years ago the human faction waged war against the voodoo queens. They had a trader spell these manacles. Slap 'em on a witch, can't do magic as longa s they're on."
"Alright, well we're not gonna get the handcuffs of doom on him while he's surrounded by his werewolf entourage," Josh pointed out.
"Just lure him away," I shrugged, that part was simple.
"I can do that," Aiden volunteered.
"Yeah, maybe," Hayley said. "If we do this, you're the bait," she told Cami. "Are you sure you're okay with that?"
"Make it look convincing," Cami told us. "The guy's really smart.
The plan was to have Hayley bite Cami. When Finn saw the wolf bite, he'd call Aiden and avoid the other wolves. The rest of us would wait at St. Ann's Church.
"So are you only here cause you like killing?" Josh asked me.
I laughed; newbloods were adorable. "Would you be more comfortable if I told you I wanted to get revenge for Oliver?" It was partially true; he seemed like he would have actually been able to keep up with me.
Aiden's phone rang and he signaled for us to be quite. The plan was working; the call came from Finn. "It was a wolf bite!" I heard the witch on the other end. "Who broke rank?"
"I'll knock some heads together and find out," Aiden assured him.
Finn agreed and said he'd do a locator spell to find the wolf responsible and then that Aiden should meet him alone. The other wolves couldn't be trusted.
"Well, he bought it," Aiden told us when he hung up. "His locator spell will bring him here without bodyguards."
"Okay, time to go over the plan one more time," Cami said to Hayley.
"Aiden's gonna get Vincent to the altar and then I'm gonna jump him," Hayley recited. "He's powerful though, so I only a few seconds to get the shackles on him."
"Where's Marcel?" Cami asked, looking around.
"He's looking for Davina. He heard she was back in town," Haley answered.
"Protective dad stuff," Cami said knowingly.
Hayley laughed. "If you wanna call ripping Kol Mikaelson into a thousand little pieces protective dad stuff, than yeah, that's it."
"You have got to be kidding me," I groaned and ran off to find Kol. I has assumed correctly just where he'd be; in the Claire tomb where he used to goad Mary-Alice into doing magic for him. He was alone, but the place reeked of the teenager's perfume.
"Has Marcel been around?" I asked, not bothering to say hello.
"No, is he supposed to be?" Kol laughed.
"I heard he was going to kill you for being involved with Davina," I explained.
He smirked at me. "Aw, and you came to save me?"
"I hadn't quite decided yet," I snarled.
"Come on, darling, why are you so hostile?" He began closing the space between us.
"Because you came back from the dead and didn't even try to find me! Not even a measly text message!" I yelled.
Now he was only inches away. "But I'm here now," he said. "And I believe I was going to show you the benefits of this body."
His lips crashed onto mine and his tongue found its way into my mouth and down my throat. I kissed him back and his hands grabbed at me, pulling my closer. I moved quickly and pinned him against the wall, but he turned us around, never breaking the kiss. His hands moved up my shirt and mine found their way to his jeans, undoing his belt. I moaned as his lips trailed down my neck.
"Bite me," he ordered as he thrust himself inside of me.
"No! You're mortal now," I protested.
"Bite me," he demanded again.
He thrust harder and I let out a cry of pleasure. My fangs appeared and I sunk them into his neck, letting his warm blood pool in my mouth. He was still sweet, but I didn't receive any memories or feelings as I did when he had been a vampire.