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A/N Please review and tell me what you think!
Hope screamed. Her body was pinned down by the vampires. His teeth in her neck. Her knife was still in the throat of the other vampire. Her emotions were certainly running wild, but she couldn't concentrate enough to do anything to this vampire.
Then it was over. The vampire was off her. Her neck wound was healing.
She sat up, her hand flying to her neck. The vampire had rolled down the hill she'd come up. The other vampires cried out in surprise.
"Yo, man! What happened?" Very mature, very vampiric, Hope thought sarcastically. She looked around for her rescuer and locked eyes with a wolf a few feet away. She froze. Remember, the wolf is more afraid of you than you are of it, she told herself, but that wasn't much of a comfort. What kind of wolf attacked a vampire?
A werewolf.
"Uh… Thanks?" She whispered. The vampires were still below; she didn't have time to chit-chat with a wolf. She scrambled to her feet and started running. She ducked under what branches she saw, getting hit in the face more than once, and dodged anything she saw that would trip her on the ground, but was sent into the mud more than once. Each time she got up, until the last time. The last time, she stayed on the ground, just rolling over onto her back.
She sucked in deep breathes and tried to comprehend the situation. She'd been set up. She had been almost killed. A werewolf had saved her. The vampire didn't seem to be following her anymore or they would have caught up to her long before. She squeezed her eyes shut.
This was not what I was expecting, she thought. She had known New Orleans was a dangerous place for the supernatural, but that information hadn't really sunk in until that moment, lying on her back in the middle of a bayou.
There was a howl that sounded eerily close and she jerked herself up into a sitting position. Wolves howled to let their pack members know their location. She hadn't a feeling that there was more than one wolf running around. She scrambled backwards until she could place her back against a tree, like that made her any safer.
Hope didn't hear the wolf until was a few feet away, facing her. She slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the instinctive yell that came out. The wolf stared her, as if checking her over, and then disappeared behind the bushes again. Hope lowered her hand and stared at where the wolf had been.
Sucking in another deep breath, she pushed herself to her feet. Magic was out of the question. Throwing around Klaus when he pissed her off was one thing. It wasn't enough to draw anyone's attention. Doing a spell that would tell her where she was? That would bring the vampires raining down on her again. Besides, her map was burnt to a crisp and a few miles back. With no other choice, she started walking.
Rebekah paced in the living room, hating herself for being so worried about a girl she barely knew. Sophie had told her that something had happened, that Hope had stopped the spell before she could do her own. Something had happened to Hope and she still hadn't returned.
She was just deciding to go out into the bayou and look for her, no matter how long that took, when the door opened and she heard footsteps in the front room. She turned and ran towards the door.
"Hope-!" She stopped dead. Klaus stood there, looking smug with himself. She glared at him. "Where have you been? Something went wrong tonight. It was a failure and-."
"On the contrary, sister. Tonight was a masterpiece."
"Are you mad? Something happened. The spell stopped before Sophie could get a location on Elijah!"
"Oh, I'm well aware. I told Marcel that Hope would be doing a spell in the bayou. He sent vampires to go stop her." Rebekah stared at him, appalled.
"You what?"
"I cemented my standing with him by giving him information about a new witch in town. He trusts me completely now."
"Sophie trusted you. I trusted you! Against all my better instincts."
"Wake up, Rebekah! Witches are on no one's side but their own. This girl, Davina? That's all they want, and when they have her, what do you think happens then, a truce? Of course not. They will use Davina's power against all of us."
"Even if you're right, the plan was to find Elijah, and you've failed us." Rebekah snarled.
"By giving Marcel what he believes was all my information, he trusts me. So much so much so that he's agreed to return Elijah to us. And when the time is right, when he has told me everything I need to know about Davina, I will have her for myself."
"I have all the faith in the world that you'll get what you want, Nik. You always do, no matter what is costs the rest of us. You disgust me. When we do find Elijah, I will enjoy watching him make you suffer! What will you tell him happened to your daughter, the girl he fought so hard to protect, when he is returned to us, Nik?"
"He needn't know the details. Where is Hope?" He asked casually, as if he planned to talk her out of hating him for the rest of eternity.
"Amazing how long it took you to ask that question. She hasn't returned. She's been gone for hours and I haven't heard from her. I've called her a hundred times and she hasn't picked up. But did you have fun drinking with Marcel?" Rebekah asked nastily. Klaus looked like he'd been slapped, which Rebekah enjoyed immensely. So much so that she continued on: "To be fair, I haven't heard from Sophie in a while either. So your daughter could be dead and it's your fault! You and your stupid games and manipulations and selfishness! She risked her life to save Elijah, to find her mother! She's just a child that wants a family and wants her mother and you've probably killed her, Niklaus!" With that off her chest, Rebekah shoved past him. He didn't try to stop her until she was halfway out the door.
"Rebekah-!"
"No, stay here with your booze and your plans. You always did love yourself as opposed to anything else!" She slammed the door shut and hurried off the steps. She went straight past her car; she would carry Hope home if she had to, but the car wasn't going to stand a chance against the bayou.
She sped down the road, stopping halfway down it. A few yards ahead of her, Hope was stumbling along, looking like a living mess. But she was still living.
"Hope!" Rebekah ran over to her, stopping right in front of her. Hope looked at her, swallowing hard.
"I got set up."
"I know. Nik's a-."
"These vampires, they surrounded me and… one of them bit me. I hope he chokes on it." Hope continued as if Rebekah hadn't spoken, "And I got away but I got lost and I left my phone. The spell didn't work. I didn't learn anything. Tell you found Elijah." Hope's distracted voice turned into a very focused plea. Rebekah looked into her eyes and, for once her life, hated to have to be brutally honest.
"No. We didn't. Come inside. Are you still hurt?"
"I got set up, of course I'm hurt!"
"I meant physically, darling." Rebekah told her, annoyed. She trusted Nik too, Rebekah realized, and he threw her into a trap. Her brother truly did disgust her sometimes.
"Oh… No. No, I healed." Hope stammered. She was covered in blood, mud and dust, but she was in one piece. Rebekah sighed in relief and took her by the arm.
"Let's get you inside." She tugged her towards the house and Hope obediently started walking with her. Rebekah reached over and yanked a branch out of Hope's dark hair. Hope's t-shirt and shorts were tattered and filthy; dried blood had caked to her neck and hands. Rebekah bit back a sigh; the girl in no way deserved any of what had happened to her.
She walked Hope up to the house. Klaus hurried out onto the porch when he saw them coming and Rebekah shot him the dirtiest look she could manage under the circumstances.
"Hope-." Klaus started. A smack to the face silenced him and made Rebekah smirk; she liked the girl more and more by the minute.
"You set me up! You tried to kill me!"
"I gave you ample warning-." Klaus started to defend himself.
"I shouldn't have had to have any warning if you had stuck to the plan!" Hope yelled at him. Rebekah as glad they didn't have any neighbors; the shouting matches were getting louder by the day.
"Elijah will be returned to us, I've made sure-."
"I couldn't find my mother-."
"Obviously you're alive-."
"Barely."
"-No harm done-."
"No harm done? Look at me!"
"Both of you stop it!" Rebekah yelled. Hope and Klaus both fell silent. Rebekah pushed Nik aside and herded Hope up the porch steps. Klaus followed them silently until they reached the stairs. Rebekah gave Hope a nudge, encouraging her to continue, while she turned to face Klaus.
"Congratulations. You got what you wanted. Happy now, Nik?" She turned on her heel and hurried up the stairs, glad that Klaus had the sense not to follow them.
It was late when Klaus finally ventured upstairs. He was almost certain that Rebekah was asleep, but the light was still on in Hope's bedroom. Klaus went to stand in the doorway, looking in. Hope was just coming out of the bathroom, her long hair dripping water onto her tank top and sweatpants, but clean.
She spotted him before he could say a word and threw the towel onto her bed.
"Come to trick me into helping you with another one of your diabolical plans?" She growled. Any patience she'd had for him was long gone.
"I thought you might like to know, Elijah is returning to us."
"He'd better be." Hope grumbled.
"You hardly know him, and yet you miss him. What is it about my brother that always inspires such instant admiration?"
"Well, for one, he hasn't put my life in danger at every turn. Secondly, he was nice to me. And, thirdly, he's actually capable of human emotion. So, yes, I prefer the good brother over you." Hope grabbed the towel off her bed and threw it into the bathroom, perhaps with more force then necessary. She pulled aside her hastily made covers and then circled around the bed to go over to Klaus. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Mr. Future King of the Quarter, I'm going to sleep until I don't feel like death." She motioned impatiently for him to leave, but he stood his ground for a minute more.
"I didn't expect you to have such trouble with the vampires."
"Is that the closest I'm going to get to an actual apology?" Hope demanded. Klaus said nothing. She scoffed and shook her head at him, "Let's try something new: say you're sorry to me. Try it out. Do you know how to pronounce the word?"
"I'm sorry." He ground out. She wasn't going to shut up until he did and, contrary to what she and Rebekah believed, he was apologetic about what had happened to her.
"I'll consider it. Get out." She shoved him, hard, and then slammed the door in his face.
"She has a temper, just like you." Klaus turned around and saw Rebekah standing in the doorway of her own room, "I wonder if someday she'll be the most feared hybrid of the supernatural world. I guess you've got competition." Smiling to herself, Rebekah shut the door and left him in the dark hallway.
