Wyld
Lauren and I sat in a Dunkin Donuts with a stolen laptop, our magical possessions, and a shopping cart of office supplies.
"Alright." I picked up Emily's grimoire. "No personal objects to spy on Mystic Falls from the Other Side since everything that isn't magical goes back to where it was. So do we try another route to link up with the Gemini Coven, or do we raid back to Mystic Falls?"
"If we raid we have a chance of losing you again, and that increases their numbers with no promise of getting you back. I am calling in my veto powers on any plans involving a raid until further notice." Lauren said, looking just a bit annoyed.
"Women don't get automatic veto powers until they become mothers," I argued. "That's just common sense."
"Alright, they don't get automatic veto powers. You've pulled one too many stupid stunts for me to not get veto powers," Lauren counter-argued. I considered.
"This implies that you get increased powers when I do stupid stunts as a penalty. Is this a road you want to go down? This encourages me to do stupid stunts so long as it is worth an expected price." I shrugged.
Lauren glared at me. "Do you actually disagree with me?"
"In concept, yes. If we are to establish a decision making process it needs to be by agreement or consensus. If we don't trust each other enough for that we need to write up a general contract for decision making so we don't fight about it. Now, to minimize fighting at critical moments I would nominate you as the one to make snap decisions under crisis, but I do not think you get a veto power unless we agree on it first." I explained.
"Alright. I suggest that I make all the rules and you follow them, because you have screwed up badly under pressure," Lauren kicked back in the booth and crossed her arms.
"My counter-proposal is this: under situations of crisis you have a right to give orders due to your concerns with my judgment. When outside of a crisis, we have equal weight in decision making. Vicki is never to be used as a tie breaker outside of our mutual agreement that she do so because she is a vampire drug addict." I proposed.
"Hm..." Lauren nodded her head. "Alright. I accept this deal. I still maintain that we do should not make any raids or attacks against prepared positions until we gain new powers or resources. The Travelers have already lost two attack forces against us, and will be preparing countermeasures."
"Devil's Advocate, we're maybe three for five." I counted off my fingers. "First time the Travelers sucker punched me, second time I was lost to their assault, third time you broke the chanting circle in the truck, fourth time you got me out of the river, fifth time we smashed the cabin assault force. When you have been involved we've always won. Wouldn't they have a countermeasure by now if they could have one?"
"We've had at least limited surprise on our side every time we've won. The only time it was a 'fair' fight you lost because you underestimated them. By now they know I can show up with a hideous amount of magical energy out of the blue and they know about your psychic powers. Trust me on this, they only need to get lucky once and we're done for."
"Alright." I nodded. "I agree with you, but I feel honor bound to poke at any plan. The longer the Travelers go unmolested the longer they have to build up power and resources or use spells to gather information. Mystic Falls has a lot of random plot tokens hidden all around town that they might find and use on us. If we tear at the Travelers piece by piece we lower their chances of pulling off anything truly dangerous and we might even win. We have no chance of winning if we leave them be."
"Huh." Lauren frowned. "That makes sense to be honest. My plan is dependent on us actually finding something that can serve as an equalizer. If that doesn't happen, or if it does but they find something to DE-equalize us right back, it's wasted time and energy when the Travelers are at their weakest."
"Alright. On the face of it, both hunting around for treasure that helps us win and trying to rip them apart bit by bit are actually quite risky strategies. Let's talk mitigation. The faster we find something, the more likely we are to succeed. I admit none of my ideas are that likely to materialize fast." I pulled a notebook over and ran my finger down the list. "Moonstone is in some well in Mystic Falls, there's some network of caves or something under Mystic Falls with Esther's coffin and a spell on it, New Orleans has an arsenal or two of Dark Objects. All of those could take days of risky searching or months of less risky searching to manage. What I really want is a doppelganger, but I have no clue on how to bring Elena over and I'm guessing Tatia found peace ages ago if she even left a ghost. "
Lauren was silent for a moment before speaking quietly. "This is monstrous, but get Elena killed and then bring her over?" Lauren suggested. "Her blood would be enough to bring her and Vicki back to life with the two of us working on it."
"She'd never agree to that and the minx is too good at the social stuff to risk it without her cooperation." I admitted. "To risk sounding crazy, I don't think any plan that starts with killing an innocent romantic heroine who is literally the star of her own TV show is going to work out."
Lauren blinked at that. "I'll take your word on it."
"Alright. So do we try New Orleans? The covens of that city are old and powerful, and making contact with the Ancestors is probably easier than making contact with people in the real world. You're a local, what's wrong with that idea?" I asked.
"Well, joining the New Orleans witches has problems besides being stuck in a vampire infested city surrounded by werewolves. You know their powers are bound to the general area, right? That sucks, and being bound to them means being bound to their hierarchy and laws. Witches in New Orleans think that everyone should join their coven and concentrate their powers and resources. That is likely to be what they'd want for our help. If we can give them access to artifacts of power that the Prison doubled or a bribe like that, maybe it could work? I don't know Ancestral Magic, but we might even be able to draw the spirits of New Orleans out into the Prison World, though I think they prefer being dead to being alive since they're basically gods in the little realm they cooked up." Lauren paused. "Also I'm not entirely sure they'd want to stop the Travelers to be honest. If the Travelers undid Spirit Magic, the Ancestors don't actually need the Other Side to mediate their access to the world. Depending on the mechanics of the Anti-Magic Field New Orleans might be just fine, and Travelers freed of the curse might be receptive to becoming New Orleans witches."
"Alright. All of those are good points. Right now I'd rate going to New Orleans as a B- tier plan. Finding the moonstone is a D, and finding Esther's coffin is maybe a C+." I answered.
"That's a high rating for finding the witch who thought turning her kids into Originals was a good idea." Lauren frowned.
"She is, well, crazy as hell and immoral as fuck. But she knows a lot, is very strong, has active spells for you to siphon, and would doubtlessly be interested in someone who could eat the magic keeping her children alive. She's probably faster to work with than New Orleans, and maybe more likely to screw us over for whatever passes as a reason in her mind." I considered. "Alright, I suggest we try and find a map of caves in the area of Mystic Falls. If that's an easy kill we do it. Otherwise we head south." I shrugged. "Got any better ideas?"
Lauren considered. "With your knowledge of the 'TV show' is there anything else you consider a bad idea that might work?"
"Huh." I sat there for a minute, thinking. "Silas's island prison is somewhere in Nova Scotia I think. There's a lot of power there, but we can't bring Silas here as he can't really die that easily. Bonnie's mom knows where Esther's husband is hidden and desiccated, but I don't know how that helps us unless we guide someone through killing him, get him to the Other Side, get him here, and Siphon his energy. Um, Klaus and Elijah would die if the Traveler plan goes through, but I have no idea where they are and only a vague idea of how to even get close to them at this point. If we can get a decent agent in the real world there's a lot of things we could try, but so far that's gone nowhere."
"Alright." Lauren sighed. "Let's see what we can do about the caves under Mystic Falls."
[hr][/hr]
It turns out there is a lot to know about caves in Virginia.
The town itself was named after the waterfall in the region, which was itself surrounded by a cavern system. The entire local geology created a strange set of geological features involving underground rivers moving in and out of caves. Natural tunnels and abundant water honestly explained a lot about the Native American-Werewolf decisions to settle in the region. Natural caves provided protection for the human civilians every full moon.
Using a spell to locate books with "Mystic Falls" in them in the Grove Hill library we discovered records that claimed the caves were used by the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. After breaking into a local history museum we found an old photograph with an ancient looking woman in it who was a slave who had hid in the tunnels, which was enough for astral projection scouting of the area.
I had forgotten that one of the major access points to the tunnels was the Mystic Grill for God knows whatever reason. As the Mystic Grill was Traveler HQ, the Travelers had already sent a scouting team into the cave system that had created a boundary spell, but the Travelers didn't know they had a reason to be exploring the tunnels.
The larger concern was that the Travelers noticed when my spirit was wandering around the area, though their attempts to trap me were pitiful. I discussed if this changed anything with Lauren.
"The way I see it, the Travelers would expect us to do a scouting spell like that no matter what we were planning. It doesn't reveal information besides maybe that we can scout," I suggested. "And anyone who can get to the Other Side from here probably has that capability anyway."
"Still, they will be trying to locate us as we move. I am unsure how well they can do in here. Most things you'd use, like hair or a personal object, aren't available in this world given how it resets. I wouldn't put it past them to know when we approach them, though." Lauren sighed.
"That seems kind of unavoidable," I argued.
"Alright. So what exactly are we looking for?" Lauren asked.
"So, your senses for magic are better than mine, so you should take point on that. There's a bunch of weird runes in one of the caves, and a spell to keep out vampires. I think the coffin's in the same cave, but wouldn't swear to that."
[hr][/hr]
Lauren
As it turned out, the freaky magical cave contained information on the Originals that exactly matched what Jeff remembered from the show. It did not contain a coffin of the Original Witch as Jeff had remembered, much to his confusion.
"So, from what you remember, one of the Bennett's ancestors made a cave and buried a coffin in it locked and preserved with magic for the Original Witch's corpse, and then put a protection spell on it?" I asked as we looked at the wall.
"Alright. Either I just failed a knowledge check or the setting is slightly different from the show," Jeff mused. "It has been a while since I watched the part where she came back."
"Hell," I sighed. "It seemed so simple if we could get Esther to help. Risky but simple." I paused. "So, we've got one powerful magical spell that is several times older than the one on the vampire tomb out of the deal. I'm guessing we use it, but what do we use it on?"
"Well, do we use it? If the Originals get here first then they might figure out where the White Oak wood ended up. That could be borderline apocalyptic if things go wrong enough. Then again, there'd be samples in this place and the other Prison Worlds even if they did that, so maybe not the worst problem to cause." Jeff frowned. "I assume that we can't just burn enough power to call Esther or Qetsiyah?"
"Not without dying or having something of theirs, no," I answered. "Got anything of theirs?"
"Um, not the best time to be bringing up super random crap from the show, but..." Jeff gestured. "Rebekah had a talisman from her mom, which she lost in the 1920s. Stefan was dating her at the time, but Klaus daggered her and mindwiped Stefan to forget-"
I cut him off. "Get to the point."
"Elena is wearing a necklace filled with vervain that belonged to the Original Witch for no particularly good reason."
"Well then." I considered. "We don't have enough power to rip it off her neck and into our hands." I paused for dramatic effect. "That is, we don't without personal objects belonging to Elena Gilbert, like the ones filling her house."
[hr][/hr]
Vicki began throwing Molotov cocktails into unprotected buildings around 11 PM, which was an hour after the world reset. Starting a serious fire hazard was tried and true as a distraction. What Jeff called "a speedster with IEDs" was a worthy challenge to Traveler disaster response units.
Jeff and I hit the tunnels ten minutes after Vicki started. The Travelers had guards stationed all around the Mystic Grill entrances and strike teams heading towards all of our favorite haunts in the town. We just had to hope I could overcome the one sent to the Gilbert House. I siphoned the cave's magic in one gigantic gulp around midnight, and then we were racing to Elena's bedroom while Vicki defended the sheriff's office from Travelers in trucks. Jeff dropped me off in the backyard and headed to relieve Vicki while I panted for air.
Elena's room felt like home by now. It had clothes that I had to admit were chosen by someone with better fashion sense than I had, and the Gilberts in their depressed and mournful stage still managed a cleaner and more organized house than my family ever had. It was nice to be back in this room, even if I would not have a chance to savor it.
This was a big spell to perform alone, but Jeff and I had worked it out. I projected myself into Elena's room to make sure she was sleeping in her bed, and thanked ambiguous divinities that it was. I'd had no idea if she had any respect for school nights.
I wracked the walls and drawers of Elena's room, building an oval of intimate objects in the mirror of where she slept on Earth. Pictures of friends and family, clothing, her cellphone, jewelry. Then I added Witch Hazel and sage to the oval and lay down inside it. Leaving my body for the Other Side, I saw Elena still sleeping peacefully.
I chanted the mix of languages Jeff had worked on as I circled my hands around Elena's throat. I burned enough power to give myself a nose bleed and I saw the necklace vanish. Elena sat up in bed, feeling the strange sizzle of the teleportation, but that was irrelevant. I pulled myself back to the Prison World and sat up, seeing the necklace on my chest. It was time to reinforce my friends.
[hr][/hr]
Jeff had his eyes closed and was chanting up a storm of water from an exploded fire hydrant and whipping garden hoses. The Travelers had the good sense to leap back, being intimately familiar with the spell that called fire out of water. I briefly wondered if this was really Jeff's best option or if it was another excuse to fight without hurting anyone, but I suppressed the worry; Jeff was doing fine.
Vicki was whimpering in a corner, bleeding from her ears. I considered my wrist, then remembered that I'd just went on vervain and sighed. I still had some excess power left.
"Asinta Mulaf Hinto, Sho Bala," I chanted and Vicki looked up with relief cascading over her face.
"What the hell is in those spells?" Vicki asked.
"Everything," I smiled as I answered. "Confuso fatina, ignos et ignos mortifina." The loose water Jeff had released gathered and surged down the street, sending more Travelers back. "Vados!" I shouted and the water wave exploded outward, catching the Travelers.
"Phasmatos Incendia!" Jeff shouted, and the Travelers in the front of the group caught on fire. Vicki flashed forward, almost too quick to see and grabbed a screaming Traveler before darting back with him.
I placed my hand on the man's head. "Somnus," I whispered. Jeff put out the fires on the prisoner with a look before he picked me up.
"Vicki, Echo." Jeff responded, using the code word for regrouping outside the vampire tomb. Vicki nodded and grabbed the prisoner. After that it was another rush of air for me.
[hr][/hr]
"So that's an Original's talisman?" Vicki asked as we sat around the torch.
"Pretty much," Jeff answered.
"So like, vampires and witches came at the same time, with the first witch being the mother of the first vampires?" Vicki asked.
Jeff shook his head. "No, she's just called the Original Witch because she's the witch of the Originals. Original is almost a family name or something."
"Weird." Vicki shrugged. "So what's it do, besides help call her up?"
"Talismans help to channel power. When a witch is dead, it helps channel power from the Other Side and gives them a way to access the real world. When a witch is alive, a talisman can be used for a lot of things, but mostly it helps prevent the whole nosebleed stuff where you damage your body when you channel too much. Modern witches usually hide their talismans under clothing to make them harder to grab, though in the past it could be a symbol of power and status." I dangled the talisman at Vicki, who reached out her hand.
"Ow!" Vicki shouted.
"Lauren, be nice to the vampire. Vicki, there's vervain in the necklace." Jeff said dryly. "Okay, cloaking spell complete, should hold until the reset." He looked up. "Sure about this, fearless leader?"
"Nope, but Travelers will be trying to block our escape tonight, and they probably prepared for something like this. If we hide out until tomorrow they will probably think we got by them already and have their guard down." I nodded to Jeff, who stepped back as I began to chant up the boundary spell to hopefully prevent any sneak attacks while we slept.
"So, if we're not sure about escaping, isn't it a good idea to talk to this woman now, not later?" Vicki asked. Jeff and I paused and looked at each other, though I kept chanting the boundary incantation as I did so.
"Well, we're not going to trust her more when we leave and if we wait until we're a bit farther away," Jeff mused. "And if we get attacked tonight, having already made contact is handy."
I finished my spell. "Downside, we're tired and coming off of battle stress. We won't be able to eat or get a goodnight's sleep until after we bolt."
"I'll take a better chance at survival over a better negotiating position to be honest," Jeff pointed out.
"Okay." I nodded. "If we're going to call forth a thousand year old crazy person we should definitely do it in a dark tomb that is only not full of vampires because we're in the middle of a giant spell." I held up my hand. "Ready?"
"Huh." Jeff nodded. "Okay." He took my hand and we held the necklace in between us. Our voices joined together in the rhythm of the spell:
"Phasmatos Manex, Un Domo Hax, Fero Adiuvex."
It was done. I felt a small wind as the ghost was summoned from the Other Side into a plane where she could walk.
Esther looked fairly normal. The witch was wearing a white dress and looked mildly surprised as she glanced around.
"Hey." Vicki waved. Esther turned and stared at the young vampire.
"What is the meaning of this?" She asked calmly.
"Long story short? We can help you kill your kids and we would like your help," Jeff started. I repressed my strong need to roll my eyes.
[hr][/hr]
"So you say in this vision that Nicklaus had a child?" Esther looked very interested as Jeff rambled his edited, censored summary of what he called "The Vampire Diaries" under the false pretense of psychic visions.
"Hope, yes. You know that Dahlia would come for her, take her, abuse her. I don't know if this means you don't want the kid to be born or not. I mean, burying a ghost so she can join the Ancestors is one thing, and not letting her exist at all is really different. I am willing to help either way to be honest; she's your granddaughter and you know Dahlia."
"She took Hope in the vision." Esther shook her head, looking horrified.
"Actually, she lost." Esther looked up, clearly gobsmacked. "Klaus got the better of her by pulling off some sadistic and brutal moves against the rest of the family and anyone else in reach to convince Dahlia he was on her side. Then he used a dagger Kol made to put them both in suspended animation for long enough..." Jeff paused. "You know, the details may not especially matter."
"She can't lose. She can't die." Esther said. "What do you think you have to gain from these lies?"
"She absolutely can. Blood of the witch who broke her heart, soil from her homeland, ash of her viking oppressors. I don't know why they work, but they do. That's your blood and Mikael's ashes, though there's other ashes Elijah and Klaus found and used up first."
Esther closed her eyes. I could almost see the mystical connections and correspondences running through her head.
"See, this is what working with him is always like," Vicki explained. "He will blabber on about nothing for half an hour and then you realize he just mentioned two deep dark family secrets of your best friends and how to become an invincible superhero."
Esther reached out her hand and touched Jeff's shoulder, and she winced.
"What. Are. You?" The Original Witch asked, her voice full of mixed emotion.
"You know, to be honest, I don't know." Jeff closed his eyes. "Or I don't believe what I know. Last thing I remember some creepy demon cannibal lady was biting me, next thing I knew I was in a forest near Lauren."
Don't say anymore. Don't say anymore! I thought at him, but telepathy wasn't actually one of my powers.
"What is it you want, exactly?" Esther asked. "I am a spirit, trapped on the Other Side."
"For now, yes. You can do a lot more to impact the real world than we know how to do. Also, this talisman should help," Jeff answered. "I want out of my current realm and back onto Earth. Once there, neutralizing the Originals is a priority for anyone who has to share a world with them. Before that, surviving the night is my top priority."
"I do not know the spell to get you out, and if I did then it would doubtlessly require far more than a single witch," Esther said.
"Blood of a witch, power used for the spell, Ascendant crystal used to make the spell. Lauren could do the spell, and so could you, and Lauren's blood would definitely work; probably yours as well. The tricky bit is the crystal, which we believed to be in the hands of a group Lauren calls the Coven of the Thirteen."
Esther straightened at that. "The Empty Chair is working against you?"
"Yes," I answered. "Hillard tried to take my body. This prison was made to stop that."
"I understand." Esther nodded. She paused for a moment, looking at me. "But why would they be after a Siphoner?"
"I'm not one of the Gemini Coven's outcasts. I have my own power. If they could possess my body, they could combine the skills of a witch and a Siphoner with the experience of whoever was using my body."
"If you'd killed yourself they would have just brought you back," Esther nodded. "Why are you working to get back to them?"
"Mostly because I want to murder them. Their coven has been doing this for centuries, and they attacked my family. Also, I feel much more comfortable brawling with them if Jeff's with me," I answered. "That comfort level would be raised even more if you helped." I looked at her, feeling just a bit of hope.
Esther nodded carefully and her silence weighed on us as she thought. "I have a spell I will teach you to get passed the Travelers," She announced.
"Thank you." Jeff smiled.
"The incantation is Phasmatos apparaitre apparebis." Esther began. "Now here's what you need to do..."
[hr][/hr]
Wyld
Teleportation requires immense power. Esther's energy reserves were less than mine, but the girl had been on the Other Side for a thousand years and been one of the greatest witches ever before that, so she knew a Nature powered shortcut based on what I was pretty sure counted as a leyline from the Town Square to a place around 60 miles to the south. Esther's explanation for why this would work was that the local werewolves used to worship in the Town Square and in the village that had since been replaced with a mall that had shut down in the mid 90s. I nodded along, not quite wanting to admit I was mystified as to why this made teleportation easier.
When we rolled out and Esther vanished back to the Other Side I asked Lauren point blank if Esther had talked us into a trap.
"The magical theory is sound and I can sense an energy point there." Lauren explained. "I say we still wait to get out until morning, and then go to the Town Square; see if it works; run if it doesn't."
"I'm fine with that," Vicki answered.
I marked a lose circle in the dirt. "We can expect Travelers in trucks on all the main roads. Do we really need to teleport? Seems we could just go through the woods. I mean, teleportation is shiny, but..." I shrugged.
"I think we should." Lauren shook her head thoughtfully. "The Travelers have been here for days. It would be easy to set up a small coven in a choke point, make an attraction spell or the right kind of hex to draw us into a trap without realizing it. Travelers have used spells like that a lot in the past and while it wouldn't be perfect, it would be pretty likely to catch us if we are running out of town. There are lots of rivers, roads, hard areas to get through, I think the Travelers would be more likely to catch us then you think, with the right magical preparation."
"Okay." I nod. "I don't remember anything like that, but the Travelers were only a big deal for something like half a season, so it makes sense they'd have abilities I didn't know about."
"So we've got maybe another 18 hours before the world resets, which is probably our best chance to make the break for it." I frowned. "What exactly do we do until then?
"I got some pills when I burned down the drug store," Vicki offered.
"Huh." I nodded. "There's no way that an immortal filled with blood lust and superpowers like the two of us could be any danger if we were intoxicated on opioids."
"Yes, Vicki," Lauren raised her hand. "He does have to be a dick about it."
"So my ideas are down to watching Lauren get high and practicing mind compulsion on Vicki, I claimed. As I hoped the girls rallied against me as a common enemy, giving us half an hour of happily arguing before that subsided.
"So I know why me," Vicki said, looking up at the ceiling. "First supernatural death of someone you 'knew' from the show. But still, why me?"
I considered why I brought her into this at all. "I liked you," I admitted. "You were the first major kill, yes, but you were sultry and complicated and proactive. I know that Nina Dobrev, that's Elena's actress on the show, said you were the death that she found the most sad. She and your actress, Kayla something, were even roommates at the time."
"What, really?" Vicki smiled at the ceiling. "I wouldn't have guessed that."
"Later on she moved in with Jenna's actress, and no idea who her name was off the top of my head. I presume your actress went on and did something else. Then of course that actress died, I mean her character did, so I don't know what her roommate situation was after that."
"Maybe I should be an actress. I clearly have the looks for it, and you say the show was even good!" Vicki laughed.
"The other thing I know about successful actresses is that they tend to be super well connected, super smart, start super young, and probably a couple of those at once before they get anywhere. Then again, I tend to follow the young hot ones, so for all I know plenty break-in in their 30s and 40s after years of work. But like, it's not enough to be hot and skilled, you have to be lucky or make your own luck." I paused. "Who am I kidding? You can just compel them. I bet the industry is full of talented vampires. Looking at a lot of stars they barely look like they aged in ten or twenty years, though maybe in thirty or forty you'd have dug your own grave on hiding what you are."
"That might be doomed anyway," Lauren suggested. "The government doesn't want people to be able to switch identities at all, do they? Another couple decades of finger printing and DNA databases and birth certificates and you might need to be hiding out in the Amazon to fly under the radar."
"That's depressing." Vicki sighed.
"I'll see what I can do. I don't exactly expect I'd want to hide my superpowers from the world for long. I'm too invulnerable for that."
"God, don't do that." Lauren shook her head. "Do not go around messing it up for everybody else."
"What, the Mystic Falls Council is going to murder you?" I rolled my eyes. "Or the weird university with vampire hunters that exists for some reason? New Orleans organized crime?"
"You get too well known, people come after you. Werewolves were everywhere, in North America once, and then vampires hunted them nearly to extinction. Witches use blood sacrifice to control a country, and they end up burned by rioting peasants. Nobody lasts long if everyone knows what they can do, people get scared or jealous and go after you."
"True Immortal witch here. What do I have to be scared of?" I asked.
"You really ask that when the Travelers captured you so easily? You think living a life in Hollywood as a celebrity with superpowers would go any better?" Lauren asked. "Hint, it won't."
"Alright." I sighed. "No masquerade breaking, then."
"Maybe like, we find some village in South America and run it as kings?" Vicki suggested flippantly.
"No running water," I pointed out.
Vicki shuddered. "Okay. Point taken."
[hr][/hr]
We were awake shortly before the reset, waiting. Over in the corner was the corpse of the Traveler we'd hoped to interrogate; I had lost control a few hours before, Vicki and I shared the kill.
"Barrier went down. Time to scram," Lauren announced.. I jumped up. Vicki had collected the pack of magical items and containers and held it in her hands.
"Vodux," I muttered and the tomb door broke open. No Travelers met us, which was a good sign. I jumped out of the hole leading to the tomb door and took a look around with the night lit by fire; the lack of screams suggested no ambush was here. "Clear!" I shouted down. Vicki jumped up after me, Lauren in one hand.
"Three, two, one, go." We hit blur speed, heading towards the town square. Mystic Falls surrounded us, a now familiar blur of houses and cars that had a comforting tendency to return to normal no matter how often we smashed the place apart for work or for play. To my surprise there was a new line of camping tents right in the clearing.
"Huh?" Vicki asked. "How'd that happen?"
"They're enchanted," Lauren explained. "This could be-" I felt my shoulder tear with a bullet wound. "-bad."
I raised my hand. "Phasmatos Incendia!" The tents began to burn one after another as my hand and anger moved in a line. I heard screams, and then Lauren raised her hand.
"Spell to lock us in just hit," She explained. "Travelers caught in the magic fire chose to burn themselves to power it."
"Crap?" I asked.
"Nah," Lauren smiled. "Cover me." She pointed at the ground at the edge of the square and I brought up a wall of fire. Lauren's hand began to glow red as she started to Siphon the power.
I heard a sickening crack. Lauren collapsed, bleeding from her neck.
"Vicki!" I shouted, and she was there, biting her wrist open and shoving it in Lauren's mouth. Then Vicki screamed as another bullet hit her.
"FUCK! That one hurts. Why the hell..." Vicki asked. I ripped it out with a flash of telekinesis and examined it as more began to hit. "Wood," I explained. "The town has a stock of them." I closed my eyes. "Phasmatos invisique." I gave my wrist to Vicki, who bit down to get some of my blood for the healing.
"What was that?" Vicki asked when she had finished drinking.
"Invisibility spell. I don't have a bullet-proof spell." I put my hand to Lauren's neck, feeling the pulse. "Can you hear me?" More bullets cracked around us, and Lauren didn't react. "Fuck."
I stood up and began shouting an incantation. "Espirimus Paratis!" I flung my arms wildly, but the area of potential snipers was too big for me to take down this fast, without channeling anything useful or having some kind of boundary. If I had stopped any of them I didn't notice a difference in the shots.
Explosions, fire, telekinesis, water, and everything else wasn't enough to stop the Travelers before they grouped up, and then I felt my eyes go dark. It was their unconsciousness spell, again.
[hr][/hr]
Lauren
I woke up to blinding pain. I groaned, feeling the familiar copper in my mouth of blood, either mine or Vicki's.
Looking around I saw that the Traveler I killed, apparently Markos, was sitting nearby. I was in a Mystic Falls hospital bed.
"You're awake." He said, looking grim. I began to call my power to pulp his brain. "Don't." Markos said softly. "I am the only reason you are alive right now."
"Explain fast." I said. Evidence implied this was true, as he could have slit my throat in my sleep.
"You left the key to this world in the hands of the witches known as the Coven of the Thirteen," Markos started.
"Hillard snatched the Ascendant out of my hand as I finished the ritual," I corrected the man.
"Ah." Markos nodded. "This confirms that the Predators can access this world."
"That matters to you?" I asked. "Why?"
"Right now I can eat, drink, make love, do all the things the Other Side was built to prevent by the First Traitor."
"Predators." I paused. "They can get in here, and you're witches now."
"We have magic back! That does not make us like you!" Markos flared. I had touched a nerve.
"Fair enough." I shrugged. "You know the Thirteen want me."
"They do," Markos nodded. "In a few months they are coming for you with all their terrible power. They have spoken to the living of my people, and they were very clear about what we are expected to do."
"They contacted your followers." I frowned. "If they did that, and got a message to you, they have a threat."
"They do." Markos nodded. "They have never warred with my people before. If they took us on now it would be unpleasant."
"You know you can't keep me prisoner, not with my powers." I frowned. "You can't keep me prisoner, but you can't kill me because the Thirteen would start to hurt you, and you don't have the balls to stand up to them."
"I don't want to kill you. I will if we have no better alternative. If we give you up then the Thirteen will start using us to do their dirty work, threatening my people's ancestors whenever they need muscle."
"You're offering me a deal." I said slowly.
"If we know where you are, we know where the one with the key will be when she arrives. You will help us take the key, and we help you stop the member of the Coven you despise."
"Our interests do align." I nodded. "What about my friends?"
Markos looked taken aback. "You have mutilated me, you have killed my people, you have stolen the most important object to my people that exists. You are very lucky to be alive, little witch."
"You staked Vicki," I said. "That is unfortunate, but I can get her back. I want Jeff."
"You are not serious." Markos gave me a look of pure disgust.
"I help you make a tether to the Other Side without Jeff as an anchor. I give you the Ascendant. You let me, Vicki, Jeff and any other ghost we end up working with use the Ascendant to get home. Then you get the key to this realm and we're gone. For the next few months I am on your side, working to take down the Coven of the Thirteen. You don't have to look over your shoulder for betrayal every time I twitch my nose. We both get what we want." I flashed my smile at the Traveler leader. "Deal?"
