The entire house was sound asleep when the resounding boom woke them.
A snarl ripped through the air as they all moved to Elijah's office, looking at the camera's, all of them half dressed or just in their briefs in the case of some of the brothers.
"Please tell me that is not who I think it is?" Jeremy asked, mouth open in disbelief as the vampire slammed into an invisible wall while another tried to throw debris through it.
"Mikael, how..." Klaus trailed off as his eldest brother pointed at the other vampire, noticeably her red hair.
"It's Sage."
Rebekah swore fluently in multiple languages surprising them all as Jeremy leaned around his lovers to get to the computer, looking through the cameras and finding where at least ten people were laying dead around the property.
"Look, someone obviously added a human to the deed." Jeremy noticed.
"Um, you actually." Klaus gave a slight smile and bit down on his lips, Elijah reaching up to cup his brother's chin and gently dragged the full lip down, giving him a short kiss while the others chuckled and Rebekah complained 'why am I related to you lot'.
"Anyway, the vampires can't get in and my wards are holding so no one else can get in so I'm going to drop a vervain grenade out of the window then sleep."
Every one of the siblings paused as he walked out the room before their minds caught.
"Vervain Grenade!"
After a minute there reply was a boom and a roar and shriek of pain, looking at the screens they saw something being chucked out of the window, a small explosion and both of the vampires dropping the ground in pain before retreating.
"Bed!"
And none of them wanted to piss off a pregnant Incubus.
Klaus joined his lover in bed, curling around his back, spooning against the teen, kissing across his shoulder, a hand rubbing over the toned stomach.
"We'd be lost without you."
Jeremy just chuckled in reply, voice a little disbelieving but he said nothing. They relaxed, breathing softly, Klaus was just about asleep when he heard it.
He shot up making Jeremy groan, rolling onto his back to glare at the hybrid who slowly moved. Klaus knew that a Succubi's pregnancy took longer than a human, nearly a full year in fact, the stages weren't exactly well documented.
The teen watched the blond, blinking for a moment before he understood, feeling the elation that spread through the room as the hybrid leaned against his stomach, listening to the baby's heartbeat, their baby.
Jeremy felt the gentle pressure of telepathy and let it through so he could hear, it reminded him of a humming bird. He used his free hand to brush through blond strands, slowly drifting into sleep.
The next day was spent adding to the wards and making personal ones, Jeremy got to practice his tattoo skills on the vampires. All of whom were half vacant as they listened in to the sound of the baby's heartbeat. The Incubus found it adorable.
"Has Mikael always been that powerful, in comparison I mean?" He asked out of the blue and they all paused.
"No, he hasn't." Finn commented. "In fact that only started after the first time we separated."
"And the difference has gotten bigger with each meeting." Elijah mused before turning amused eyes on his lover. "And I'm sure you have a theory."
Jeremy gave a sheepish grin and nodded once before turning to Finn and Klaus.
"I need you to do something for me." The Succubi looked uncomfortable as he shifted, sitting up. "Nik, try to punch Finn properly, Finn catch it?" He shifted again, tucking his legs under himself and watched as they moved to do as he asked.
All of the looked stunned as Finn caught the punch with ease, merely by locking his muscles to halt it making all the vampires stare in shock.
"Thought so, the more powerful the blood, the more strength you retain. That's why Mikaels so strong, he's been feeding off of vampires for a millennia." Jeremy had their attention, all of them not sparing a thought for anything else. "Finn should be the weakest of all of you because of how long he's been daggered."
Klaus shifted in place, smiling at Finn when the elder hugged the blonds waist, pulling them close. He pressed a quick kiss to the hybrid's lips before returning their attention to Jeremy.
"But Finn has mostly been feeding off Nik so instead he's the strongest." He shrugged before thinking.
"A vampire's strength is otherwise a directly correlation, so it goes up by the same amount every year with the right amount of blood, an original is the equivalent of ten thousand. Plus another thousand. Finn is probably already stronger than Mikael, not to mention you all have magic." They all blinked slowly before they started laughing.
It was a slow, lazy day as they remained inside, every once in a while another thump bounced off the wards, the vampires started to notice that with every hit the barrier seemed to get stronger and thick, something they only noticed because they were under it's protection.
"Why don't more witches do this?" Finn mused with a chuckle.
"Because they're idiots." Jeremy snorted. "They follow the ancestors, judgemental bitches that refused to move on because they didn't like following the Goddess' rules. Not to mention they don't study it properly, they just bulldoze through it all because of how 'powerful' they are."
The Incubus scrunched his face up in annoyance.
"You guys all follow the Goddess anyway and so do Marie and Nikolai which is why I follow her." The tone in his voice said that he thought that anyone who didn't follow her, or someone similar like Hecate was an idiot and Finn found himself disagreeing. "Also why Marcel is no doubt terrified of them, they're not ones to cross."
The original chuckled, he had easily gathered that in their short meeting, especially when Nikolai had started to make their blood boil without effort as he threatened to skin them if they ever hurt Jeremy. Marie had promised to bring everyone of them to their knees before introducing them to a few werewolf friends and the woman had not been the kind to make hollow threats.
Finn moved to sit besides his lover, holding him close and pressing a kiss to his temple, happy to relax, think, breath. For once Mikael wasn't the thing from their nightmares, he wasn't something they had to fear, instead he should fear them and it was all because of their brilliant, beautiful lover who had made it all possible and still expected, nor wanted, anything in return. No Jeremy had done it purely and simply because he wanted them safe.
Of course none of them were any the wiser when Kol got restless and decided to leave the safety of the mansion, walking into the woods and never saw the blade until it was buried in his chest, his fathers cruel smirk before him.
"Hello son, don't worry so much." Cold eyes regarded the youngest original. "It's that disgusting bastard I want and your little whore." And no matter how much Kol wanted to struggle, to snarl, kill and tear his body was completely frozen in place before his father let go of the blade and he collapsed to the floor, unmoving.
He drew up everything in him, screaming in his mind and feeling it spread out over the lands reaching his siblings as the agony spread through him, bringing tears to his eyes, the sick, twisted magic burning through his veins until he wanted to sob but couldn't, trapped.