AN: Thanks for all the notes. We are nearing the end of the series.
I do not own the Vampire Diaries or Originals Characters. I own the story. ****Note: This story contains themes of an adult nature, including and not limited to rape, murder, kidnapping, domination, submission and more. If you are uncomfortable with themes of this nature, please do not read. This is part 3 of a series following 'The Dead of Winter' and 'The Blood Rose'. This story may cause triggers and is rated M for intense sexual situations, death, domination and more.*****
Chapter 10
Bonnie walked into the graveyard. It was difficult being away from Kol, but she knew in her heart that he would go find her mother. She had made a point of telling him about her. She was the only other witch she knew that could hold her against a witch like Esther. If her mother got hurt though, she would never forgive herself.
Esther was sitting at an altar performing a spell of some kind when Bonnie entered the crypt. She half rolled her eyes and finished it with a smile. "Esther, you called."
Esther turned and smiled. "Bonnie. Welcome." She turned to face the pretty girl. Bonnie smiled to herself that Esther had no idea she was married to her son. "Today is a big day."
"A big day?" Bonnie pried.
"Yes it is, leave the details for me. But trust me you are not going to want to miss it. Today is the day that we take down the Mikealson's."
"Aren't you a Mikealson?"
"Yes I am. I meant my son, Klaus. Without him, the rest of the family will crumble. With him out of the picture, we can take down the rest of the family and get Rose." Bonnie felt her ire rising with the thought of something happening to Kol.
She raised her eyebrow. "So what's the plan?"
"Well for starters, I need you to stay here." She smiled and walked out of the crypt. As soon as Esther left the crypt, Bonnie clutched her head. A ripping pain went through her head as she caught glimpses of Klaus on a slab, then a vision of Rose saying "friend". At that moment, an electrical surge went through her body and she felt power coursing through her body.
Klaus POV
"Good morning love." He rolled over and looked at the beautiful blonde in bed with him.
Caroline smiled. "Good morning." She leaned in and kissed him. Last night had been amazing. Whenever she looked at him, she could feel this never-ending intensity, whether it was love or vengeance, it was intense.
From somewhere outside, a loud boom surged through the compound. Caroline looked at Klaus with panic. They both vamped from the room towards the sound. The entire front of the compound was gone. Klaus looked around trying to see what caused the explosion, slightly confused by the scene in front of him. "Is everyone okay?" he shouted at Marcel and Elijah.
"Yes everyone is fine I think. What in the hell…?"
Klaus was looking through the opening where the explosion originated, when Finn made an appearance. He stopped in his tracks, completely caught off guard.
"Brother." He looked around. "Apologies for the damage."
"Finn. What are you doing here?" Klaus was seething.
"Well Brother, I had to retrieve something. You know it took us awhile to figure out a workaround to the protection boundary. Then it occurred to us, it wasn't about us getting in. It's about getting you out."
"Finn I assure you I am not afraid to come out." Klaus walked towards him, when from somewhere off to the side, Finn pulled Caroline in front of him. She was in and out of consciousness.
Klaus went to rush forward when Finn revealed a blade that looked like it was fashioned out of bone. It had a leather handle and gold studs. Klaus stopped short. "Not so fast brother. Do you know what this is?"
"The weapon I'm going to tear your heart out with?" Klaus proposed.
"No, its Papa Tunde's Blade. I hear it causes extreme agony to the person that its stabbed with."
The rage was flowing from Klaus' eyes. Caroline was woozy and she came to, confused by what was going on. "What?" She started looking around, straining to move.
"If you harm one hair on her head. There will no end to the torture I will cause you until you are dead."
Finn smiled. "Well, lucky for you brother. I'm here to offer you a deal."
"What deal?" Klaus's face was strained as he watched his brother press the blade against Caroline's chest.
"You for Caroline."
"Nooooooo." Caroline put her hand up. "Klaus you have to help to help Rose. You are the only one that can." Klaus stood there, furious, swallowing back the anger that was welling up in his throat. He looked away and swallowed.
Looking back up, "Fine."
"Mind you if try anything, she is compelled to kill herself in front of us both by any means necessary."
Marcel and Elijah started to come forward. Klaus put his hand up though and stopped them. "No. Protect Rose."
As Klaus walked towards Caroline, who was crying. "No Klaus. Don't." Finn smiled before shoving Caroline towards Klaus and Elijah. He then turned and stabbed Klaus in the chest with the blade.
Caroline was screaming as Elijah held her arm. Klaus watched her sobbing as he grabbed his chest in agony. His eyes saying everything, then they closed. Before she could react, Finn grabbed Klaus and disappeared with him.
"Caroline come on." They pulled her into the compound. Her demeanor going from devastated to angry. She was trying to think.
"What are we going to do? They have Klaus! Esther has Klaus!" She didn't realize how elevated her voice was.
"Caroline, please calm down. Yes, they have Klaus. He isn't dead. They haven't figured out a way to kill him if they are using that blade." She looked at Elijah, who always seemed unreasonably calm in every situation.
"Right. Good. Okay. So what do we do?"
"Well, it's lucky I'm here to save the day." Kol stepped into the courtyard. Everyone turned to face the younger Mikealson.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Bonnie's mom, Sheila." A beautiful woman, who had Bonnie's unmistakable green eyes, stepped into the courtyard.
"Hello."
Elijah was the first to step forward and greet her. "Welcome Ms. Bennett. I'm sorry that the compound is in somewhat of a bad state at the moment." Looking around at the debris left from the explosion. Everyone else followed Elijahs' lead and greeted the woman. The woman that was compelled to watch Rose stepped forward with Rose. "And this is Rose…who you've no doubt heard about."
"Yes. What a lovely child." She smiled. The woman disappeared with Rose to put her down for a nap. Caroline was pacing back and forth.
"What are we going to do?"
Kol started. "Well we can assume that Davina is linked to Esther just like she thinks Bonnie is. So we need to find a way to unlink Davina. If we can catch Esther off guard we can kill her."
"We have to burn her to find the other white oak stakes."
"Well there are two more white oak stakes left. One we can assume is tied to Davina and the other to Esther. When we destroy Esther it should show us the locations of both."
Bonnie POV
There was a rumble at the entrance to the tomb. Bonnie spun around in time to see a man carrying Klaus. He not-so-gently threw him on a slab of stone in the middle of a circle. Just as her vision had shown her. Rose was trying to communicate and she knew that she was channeling power to her. Okay…so Klaus is here, unconscious and tortured judging by the twitching and groaning coming from him. She was ashamed to admit it but she was glad it wasn't Kol. She wasn't sure she could maintain her composure in that case. Klaus was a little…easier to see like this. One thing was for sure, she needed to be ready when it was time.
Finn came and went, probably in search of his equally evil mother. She paced for a bit and then alternated that with sitting on a stone step, which she guessed was an altar at one time. The minutes seemed to drag by as she waited.
Caroline POV
"Caroline, excuse me for the impoliteness of what I'm about to say, however, we can not be sure of your loyalty right now. There is no way to undo any compulsions that Esther and her minions have put on you. For everyone's safety, we should try to keep you barricaded." Caroline studied Elijah as he spoke.
"You're right. What can I do?"
"I would suggest we do a boundary spell and keep you somewhere that you are unable to harm yourself or anyone else."
Sheila nodded. "Do you have a place in mind?"
"Yes. There is a studio on the third floor with a bed and a chair but nothing else that should suffice as a weapon or anything troublesome." Caroline sighed.
"Okay, lead the way. Fourth quarter and I'm sidelined." She begrudgingly followed Sheila and Elijah up the stairs. Elijah was right though. She had no idea that she had even been compelled. She didn't want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt, especially with a baby in the house. That, she was pretty sure she'd never forgive herself for so this was the better option.
As they reached the third floor. Sheila performed a simple boundary spell. Caroline tested the boundary and of course it was in tact. "Elijah. Please save him."
"Caroline. My brother is rash and sometimes difficult, however, we have a bond that runs deeper than any other on earth. I will bring him back." His chiseled face held no hint of anything except absolute success. He nodded at her. "If anything happens, call for Marcel." She nodded at him once more before he left. She turned around and looked at the dusty studio space. It was quite bare with a hint of having been somewhat fabulous at some point in time. Sighing she flopped backwards on the bed to stare at the ceiling.
Elijah POV
As he reached the first floor with Sheila, what was left of their ranks sat at the table in the courtyard. Marcel and Rebekah were looking beleaguered and over-wrought. Kol was…well he was actually quite chipper considering his wife was in bed with the enemy. He had absolute confidence in the fact that Bonnie was every bit as brilliant as she was beautiful.
"So we are down to six. One human, one vampire and three originals. Well you have to give mother credit, she was able to take down Klaus. We need a plan. Klaus, even though he is daggered and down, is safe for all intensive purposes. They can't kill him or they would have. Our mother will expect instantaneous retribution for this. I don't think she has the power to do anything further without Rose's power."
"We do have a plan." Kol added. "Bonnie is not tethered to Esther. We rush in. Attack her from both sides. She won't be expecting that. She thinks that Bonnie is loyal to her."
"Kol. Rushing in thinking that mother isn't prepared for anything is a fool's errand. Although you are right about Bonnie." Elijah paused. "What are the odds that she knows about Sheila though?"
"Well, no doubt she has researched anyone that is close to anyone involved. She knew about Caroline and her mom, so we have to assume that she knows about Sheila. Our only ace in the hole is that she doesn't know about the spell that redirected the spell from Bonnie to rabbit."
Sheila spoke up. "If Esther is linked to the rabbit. We can do a spell to subdue her magic for a minute. If we can do that, secure her, and kill her. Everyone should be released from her hold."
"Should be?" Elijah questioned.
"Yes. Should be. Esther is a powerful witch. She could have secured the spells using another's magic instead of her own and it would prevent the magic from dissipating with her death."
"How can we tell?"
"Do we have the rabbit?"
"No..but we have Rose, it belonged to Rose so we have direct connection."
Rebekah walked towards the room where the nanny was playing with Rose. "We'll be needing her then. Stay here." She picked up Rose who smiled at Rebekah. As hard as Rebekah tried to be, she just couldn't. She tickled the toddler and she giggled.
Sheila looked at Rose as Rebekah handed her the baby. The baby smiled and put her hand on her cheek.
"She does that when she likes someone."
"No…she does that to see who is her friend and read thoughts." Sheila corrected Rebekah. "Now Rose, I need to do a spell on your white bunny." Sheila handed her back to Rebekah for a minute. "I need salt." Elijah looked at Marcel, who immediately left to get the salt and returned before anyone even knew he left. "Salt."
Sheila poured the salt in a circle in the middle of the courtyard. In the center she poured a pile of salt and drew a triangle with a triangle in the middle. She took the baby in the circle with her and everyone watched her carefully as she started chanting. "Phasmatos Oculacs. Phasmatos Oculacs. Phasmatos Oculac."
There was a swirl of smoke around Sheila and Rose that was so thick that no one in the room could see them. Elijah started to rush forward when Kol grabbed his arm. "It's fine." He mouthed. Kol watched in amazement as the entire room was swept up in a tornado of smoke that swirled around the two beings in the circle.
As the smoke died down, Sheila stood for a moment, both her and the child in a trance-like state. She released the power of the circle and looked at everyone. "So there is a cloaking spell on Esther's magic. She is redirecting Davina's magic to secure the magic, which leads us to an equally alarming problem. We can kill Esther, but we can't release the spells without killing Davina or finding a way to unlink Davina from the spells. My belief is we need to kill Esther first, then unlink Davina. My fear is that if we try to unlink Davina it will kill her.
"No. That is not an option." Marcel spoke up.
"We may not have a choice." Sheila looked at him.
"Find one." He was adamant in his reply. "I don't care what we have to do. Davina does not die in this. She is a seventeen year old girl."
"I need to talk to the ancestors." She nodded at him. She went to leave.
"Sheila, if I may…It may not be safe for you to roam New Orleans without an escort." Elijah proposed.
"I'll be fine." With that she turned and walked out the door. Elijah looked uneasy. Not only did he not know this Sheila very well, he was uneasy putting his fate in the hands of a witch that was in no way associated with the Mikealson family. It seemed risky to him. He knew that Kol trusted her though for some reason, and that was a little reassuring.
It was hours before Sheila returned from the graveyard. "I called a friend with a direct connection to the ancestors. They gave us a spell to strip Davina of her powers. The ancestors are not happy with Davina, but they feel that she is being played by Esther. If Davina has no magic in her, then this particular magic can not be used against her, especially since she is the anchor for all Esther's spells. We to strip Davina of her powers, kill Esther, then destroy the bunny. In that order. After that, we should be able to find the white oak stake and destroy any magic associated with Esther. We can count on Bonnie to keep Esther down to kill her."
"How will Bonnie know what to do?" Elijah questioned.
"Because she is my daughter and she will know to take the cue from me."
"Forgive me, but isn't that a lot to depend on?"
"Elijah it will be fine. I would never let anything happen to Bonnie. We have safe words set up so she knows what is going on."
"I'm sorry, pardon me?"
"Bonnie and I set up call words for different scenarios. The one for this scenario is 'excruciating'. Once she hears that word from me she'll know that she needs to take Esther down on cue. There was just no other way to ensure it working."
"I find it disconcerting to leave my fate hanging in the balance over one word."
"Brother, will you trust me? It will work."
"Fine. Let's make plans to leave in three days. We need to secure the child. I know exactly who to call."
"Three days?"
"Yes. I want our mother to think we've given up on Klaus."
Elijah headed off towards the common room, but returned quickly.
The rest of the group stood there. "Vincent is going to watch Rose. Since they are adopting the child afterwards, I figure he is the safest bet to protect her."
Sheila looked surprised. "You know Vincent?"
"Yes, we had a slight misunderstanding, but we are all on the same page now. Okay so we need to surround Esther as much as possible. Marcel, you need to get Davina to the graveyard somehow."
Marcel shuffled. "It's not going to be easy and I swear Elijah, if anything happens…"
Kol moved towards him. "Marcel. We haven't always been the best of friend's mate but I give you my word, nothing will happen to Davina. Need I remind you that my wife is also in harms way." Again, Sheila's face contorted. Kol thought and looked at her. "Yes I know we married for the child. But Sheila, I do love her and I do want to stay married." Sheila just smiled at him.
Elijah continued. "Kol can provoke our mother with his call word. Once Davina is in the mix, Sheila start the stripping spell. Once that is done, Kol can cue Bonnie to take down Esther. Once Esther is disabled, I'll remove the blade from Klaus and we'll kill Esther. Then we'll destroy the bunny and everything should work like a charm."
Rebekah piped in. "And what am I to do?"
"Dear sister, you have one of the most important jobs of all. You need to take out Finn, whom I know will be watching us."
"Take out? Do you mean kill him?" Rebekah became nervous at that thought.
"Of course not! You are going to dagger him and tuck him away where he can not do harm for a couple hundred years." Elijah handed her the dagger and white oak ash.
"We need to be prepared for anything. Mother is smart and she always has a back up plan. I suggest we all think about that."
"Might I suggest we use the tunnels that run underneath the house to leave. That way Rebekah can catch him off guard before they know what is happening."
"Yes. I think that is an excellent suggestion Marcel."
"Brother…I need to talk to you for a moment in private." Kol took Elijah off somewhere out of reach of the other vampires and Caroline who was no doubt listening from the third floor.
When they returned a few hours later, everything seemed to be in place. So they waited.
Bonnie POV
When Esther walked in, Bonnie half rolled her eyes. "So yea, this was exciting and all, but can I leave now?"
"I don't understand. I would have thought they'd come for Klaus."
Raising her eyebrows. "Well obviously they have better things to do. Besides. It's not like Klaus is everyone's favorite and pretty much every witch in New Orleans hates him. Maybe they just don't care."
Esther studied the girl. "Maybe. Maybe they've finally seen him for what he is. They've always stood by each other regardless of what he's done in the past. I'm just surprised. Still you should return tomorrow in case they needed time to regroup."
The next day was more of the same. Bonnie sat on a stone step watching as Esther started becoming frazzled. Esther was truly unnerved as she looked at her son. Her plan wasn't working. Bonnie could tell she was starting to second guess herself. Her incessant pacing back and forth was annoying. She kept going over the plan with Bonnie for when they showed up. But again, nightfall came without an appearance from the Original family.
On the second day, Esther started researching ways to link the original family and kill them all including Klaus. Unable to find anything, she became more and more agitated. "I'm going to see Davina. I'll return before nightfall." Do not go out and if anything happens, have Finn find me."
Finn had been coming and going, he was watching the mansion, but nothing. Finn never underestimated his brothers, but even he had to admit, this was so unlike the Original family. Esther returned that evening, even more agitated that Davina had not heard anything either.
Elijah POV
"Well you'll be interested to know that we have a visitor." Sheila said quietly.
"Oh I know, which means our mother is becoming nervous that her plan didn't work. It's exactly where we want her. Second guessing herself and getting nervous at our lack of response. Tomorrow it begins."