Chapter 20.
1.
"Constituite diem nexu Tumultus animi….Constituite diem nexu Tumultus animi….Constituite diem nexu Tumultus animi...Constituite diem nexu Tumultus animi…."
The hypnotic rhythm of ritualistic chanting gradually became louder and more distinct, as Hayley cautiously made her way towards the centre of the Neivera camp. The hybrid weaved her way in-between trailer vans of various sizes, holding herself flush against each mobile home before checking to see if the coast was clear so that she could sprint over to the next. Thus far she had yet to encounter, or even spot, another living being present in the large encampment - leading the hybrid to believe that she would find most of the wolves who had not ventured out to the Quarter's carnival, in the same spot as where the loud chanting was emitting from.
A flickering orange glow radiating up into the night sky had steadily been getting brighter as Hayley had been progressing towards the heart of the camp - and now as she sidled up to yet another trailer vans flank, the hybrid could feel a heat emitting from just beyond her concealed position, signifying the presence of a large fire.
The chanting noises had now reached a crescendo just beyond the metal van which she crouched behind, and realisation dawned on the hybrid that there was definitely more than just one or two different voices blending together to create the loud monotone invocation.
Taking a deep breath, Hayley slowly slid herself along to the mobile home's edge, and cautiously craned her head out from the hidden side of the van. She scanned her eyes quickly over the scene unfolding around a large camp fire, before quickly pulling back to be completely concealed once more.
Damn!
The hybrid sighed, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the cold surface of the metal vehicle, as she ran over in her mind the details of the scene that she had just witnessed.
Just beyond her position was a relatively large clearing, made rectangular in shape by the surrounding trailer vans that bordered its edges. At the centre of the clearing was a large camp fire burning strong, tall in height due to the long wooden boards being used to fuel it. Its flames reached high into the sky, as various embers shot off in different directions - flaring bright for a few seconds before disappearing into nothingness as though they had never existed in the first place. Surrounding the fire, in a circular formation a few metres away from its heated core, were what Hayley assumed to be members of the Neivera pack - all knelt down on their knees. The mixed group of men and women had been swaying slightly from side to side, as they chanted loudly in unison - seemingly in some sort of hypnotic state.
She had quickly counted at least ten chanting wolves present just around the roaring fire.
Hayley had seen one man however who had not been reciting the same cryptic words over and over, like the others around him. He had still been kneeling in front of the fire, however his upper torso had been hunched over with his arms leaning out in front of his body as his hands lay planted on the muddy floor - palms and fingers spread out to full capacity. The wolf's face had been contorted with what had seemed to Hayley to be a mixture of concentration and pain, whilst bright crimson blood had been freely flowing from both his nostrils. The hybrid had not been able to see anything of the man's eyes despite their lids being open, indicating that his irises and pupils had been rolled back into the wolf's skull.
That must be Hatch - and judging from his appearance, his connection to Keelin was definitely taking its toll on the Alpha wolf's body
Opening her eyes once more, Hayley took a deep breath and steeled herself for the confrontation that she now knew was inevitable.
The way the hybrid saw it, there were two options available to her - two possible ways for her to achieve the goal of severing the bond between the Neivera pack leader and Freya's girlfriend Keelin. She could try and sneak past the chanting pack members, hoping that they would remain spellbound in their hypnotic trance long enough for her to reach Hatch and liberate him of his traitorous head. Or she could attempt to dispose of all of the surrounding chanting wolves first, thus giving her a clear path to then kill the pack's alpha unhindered.
Both options would inevitably lead to a lot of bloodshed, but the first would possibly see the link between Hatch and Keelin broken faster than the second - which judging by the urgency she had heard in Freya's voice when they had spoken on the phone, was paramount to preventing her daughter from being harmed.
Nodding her head briefly in steeled determination, the hybrid gently pushed herself away from the trailer van's flank, and began to slowly emerge from its protective cover into the open space beyond. Being careful of where she placed her feet, Hayley attempted to quietly walk by the entranced chanting pack members, her eyes sweeping over each of their forms as she passed them by.
"Constituite diem nexu Tumultus animi….Constituite diem nexu Tumultus animi….Constituite diem nexu Tumultus animi..."
Their rhythmic words continued to bellow out into the evening sky, helping to set the pace at which Hayley placed one foot down after the other. Thankfully the ground upon which she tread was for the most part soft, due to being an eclectic mixture of mud and grass which was kept in a near constant state of pliability due to the Bayou's damp and waterlogged conditions. The hybrid was all too aware however, that even though the lack of audible footsteps coming from her advance was working in her favour, the pre-occupied wolves would soon notice the presence of a new scent within their midst thanks to their enhanced supernatural abilities.
She had to move this along, and fast
After picking up her pace slightly, Hayley came to an abrupt sudden halt a few feet away from the hunched over Alpha pack leader, when a figure that she had not previously been able to see from her position behind the trailer van, came into view. Lying face up and unmoving on the floor a good few metres to the right of group surrounding the hot camp fire, the hybrid could see what looked to be the body of the elder wolf, Mary. From where she stood, Hayley could just make out that her friend's forehead and face were covered in dried blood which had been dripping down onto the ground beneath her before the flow had come to a stop. She was however unable to tell whether the wolf was still breathing or not, being too far away to pick out for definite any movements of the woman's chest.
Anger flared quickly throughout her veins, as the irises of her eyes automatically began to swirl with a mixture of yellow and orange hues. A low growl began to resonate from somewhere deep within her throat, causing the hybrids top lip to curl into a threatening snarl as she turned her attention back from her fallen friend, towards the entranced bleeding pack leader.
Just as Hayley was about to lunge towards Hatch, the loud monotone chanting that had been filling her head since she had arrived at the Neivera camp abruptly ceased. The resulting silence was quickly shattered by a males voice loudly shouting out.
"STOP HER!"
Turning around swiftly, Hayley saw that most of the pack members who had been knelt around the fire were now quickly rising up off the ground, their faces contorted into fierce snarls which clearly showed off the sharp canine teeth housed in their mouths. At least eight pairs of feral yellow eyes were now trained upon her, watching her closely as they slowly advanced towards her.
Hayley twisted back around to face Hatch in a blur of motion, and rapidly extended her own sharp hybrid teeth as she lunged for the pack leaders exposed neck. She reached within a few centimetres of the man's flesh – close enough to hear the blood pulsing through his carotid artery – when her whole body was harshly thrown through the air sideways, causing her to come crashing down onto the muddy ground to the far left of the entranced Hatch.
Shaking her head quickly as she pushed her body up off the ground with her hands, Hailey's hybrid eyes snapped up - looking rapidly from left to right as she tried to locate where the attack come from. She had been thrown by an energy force, not an actual person – that much she knew for definite. Which in turn could mean only one thing.
There had to be a witch here somewhere!
As she watched the growling members of the pack resume their advance towards her new position, the hybrid's eyes fell upon one figure that looked to not be moving in the same direction as the others. He was slowly making his way over to stand beside Hatch -appearing to have emerged from one of the trailer vans that surrounded the camp fire clearing. After seeming to check on the condition of the entranced pack leader, the dark clothed man snapped his head up and locked his eyes onto Hayley.
Shit, this just got complicated….
"Arrrgh!"
Hayley screamed out as her hands instinctively flew up to the sides of her face, in response to an intense pain erupting within her skull. Penetrating levels of pressure began to build up inside of her head, making it hard for the hybrid to concentrate on anything other than the agony ripping through her brain.
Forcing her scrunched eyes open, she could no longer see the witch or Hatch, due to one of the Neivera pack members stepping directly in front of her - looking down upon the hybrid with an amused sneer plastered across his face. When he spoke, Hayley could only just make out the words that he was saying, as they filtered into her head through the dense waves of pain sloshing around in there.
"Did you honestly think that we wouldn't be prepared for unwanted company?!"
He laughed cruelly whilst continuing to stare down at her hunched form.
"Hope WILL die tonight – no one can stop that now!"
Hayley began to feel a white-hot rage rapidly build up within her at the mention of her daughter's name, despite the agony which wrecked through her head. The colour of her eyes bled from brown to amber once more, as she felt her canine teeth descend out of her gums. Concentrating on pushing the pain piercing through her head to the back of her mind, the hybrid slowly forced herself up onto her legs, panting heavily with the effort exerted.
A female pack member to the right of her laughed, as she watched Hayley struggle against the witch's onslaught of pain.
"Oh look, the beaten hybrid dog doesn't know when to stay down!"
A fierce growl emitted from Hayley's throat, as she quickly leant backwards, before throwing up her hands and pushing herself forwards into the sneering male wolf stood in front of her - forcing all of the supernatural strength within her behind the motion. As her hands connected with his chest, the hybrid felt several of the wolf's ribs shatter inwards, before his whole frame was lifted up into the air and sent flying backwards. The man's body only came to a stop when it collided into the figure of the male witch, who instantly collapsed under the weight of the wolf's now lifeless body.
Feeling the pain within her head immediately dissipate, Haley raised herself up tall, and stretched out the muscles of her shoulders and back. As she cracked a bone within her neck, the hybrid locked blazing eyes onto the female wolf who had called her a dog only seconds ago - briefly flashing a vicious razor sharp smile in her direction.
"This bitch never stays down!"
Before the woman had time to register what was happening, Hayley plunged her head forward, sinking her teeth deep into the soft tissue surrounding the wolf's neck. The hybrid wasted no time in ripping her mouth away from her victim, taking half of the woman's throat with her clenched between her jaws. Blood immediately sprayed across Hayley's face and jacket, as the female wolf's eyes widened with shock and pain. Before the woman's body had chance to slump, the hybrid grabbed onto her frame, lifting her up off the ground in one fluid movement and throwing her forcefully towards the pack's leader, Hatch - who remained knelt on the ground in a trance, despite the commotion unfolding around him. The bleeding woman collided directly with her pack leader, knocking his frame over sideways, with both wolves collapsing down onto the damp ground.
Hayley just had time to see Hatch's eyes roll back into their normal position, as he wildly looked up and around from where he lay trapped under the now dead wolf - before her view was quickly obscured by several of the remaining pack members charging towards the hybrid.
Ducking her head slightly, she growled fiercely and triggered her transformation.
2.
Freya was trapped.
If she was honest, she knew that she could efficiently remove herself from the current tight position that she was in - half lying down, and half propped up by one arm as her other continued to hold the angry wolf at bay behind a magical barrier flowing out from hand. But to do so she would need to push her attacker backwards using a considerable force of power - and that would definitely risk further damaging the large open wound already present on Keelin's flank.
A risk she was not prepared to take.
They must have only been held in their current position for a minute - two at the most - but it had felt like an eternity to the witch, whose emotions were rapidly reaching a frayed state of tatters. She had for the most part had her eyes scrunched shut from the moment Keelin had knocked her over, her head leaning away from the long muzzle that continuously snapped sharp teeth centimetres from her face. She had not been able to bring herself to remain looking at the raw hate and anger that radiated from the wolf's primal yellow eyes, as it had growled at the invisible barrier, in-between repeatedly ramming its head and shoulders against the obstruction.
When the onslaught of the wolf's attacks briefly halted however, she risked opening her eyes again, turning her head back to look once more at the animal on top of her. It immediately became apparent why the wolf had ceased its relentless attempts to kill the witch - blood was now covering most of the animal's muzzle, flowing freely from several large cuts that ripped into the canines face as it had been throwing itself harshly at the thin blockade separating the two of them. Some of the crimson liquid must have flicked into the wolf's eyes, as it was currently shaking its head back and forth, trying to clear its vision once more.
Freya's heart sank as she took in the sight of her girlfriend's injured animal form. Blood from the wolf's now numerous injuries had managed to cover most of the fur on its body, as well as a good deal of Freya's lower limbs and the floor upon which she lay. The Neivera pack leader currently in control of the wolf clearly didn't give a damn about the state in which he left her girlfriend's body. Freya realised with despair that Hatch would not give up trying to get to her, until the form that he was manipulating was no longer capable of functioning.
Until Keelin was dead
Freya felt the sting of tears begin to form in her eyes, as she continued to watch the wolf prepare itself its next vicious lunge at her. The witch did not know how much more Keelin's body could take of being flung at her enchanted barrier, before permanent irreversible damage was done - and she had no way of knowing if Hayley was close to ending the connection between Hatch and her lover. The witch needed to try and end this, one way or another.
"Keelin…. I don't know if you can hear me, but you need to try and fight this. Your body is not going to hold out much longer."
Her voice was shakier than she had realised it would be - betraying the anguish that currently pulled painfully at her heart.
The wolf lowered its head and growled deeply, as its blood-stained lips drew even higher over its jagged teeth in response to Freya's words.
The tears that had been collecting in Freya's eyes now began to fall in earnest, as she continued to try and reach through to her girlfriend.
"Baby please, don't let him take your life away like this"
As she studied the wolf's features, Freya could have sworn she saw its face distort with a look of spite, as though the animal had not only understood her words, but was ridiculing the emotion behind them. It was at that moment that the witch remembered that not only was Hatch controlling Keelin, but he was of course hearing everything that she was saying too – seeing every tear that was currently falling down her cheeks. The consciousness looking out at her through those feral eyes wasn't that of her girlfriend at all – it was just the Neivera pack leader!
And he was laughing at her pain.
Freya felt a shift in the emotions that had been thundering their way through her body. The anguish and despair that had been consuming her heart only seconds ago, was being pushed out by more primal feelings of hate and loathing, colliding together in a destructive explosion of anger. She thought of every time the cowardly Alpha had forced Keelin to act out against her nature. Of the violence that the bastard had made her kind and loving girlfriend commit. Of the tourists that he had made the peaceful brunette hunt down and murder. Of the intimacy between the two lovers that the sadistic wolf leader had violated and twisted into an attempt to kill the witch.
Of the fact that he was now slowly destroying Keelin's body, one fierce blow at a time
The air in the small Funhouse room quickly began to take on a tangible tension, as static energy started to radiate from the witch's body in great quantities. Her emerald eyes hardened, as she fixed an angry glare on the wolf's now half lidded eyes – a snarl of her own forming on her lips.
"I'm giving you one last chance to get the hell out of my girlfriend's body, you twisted fuck - before I put an end to you and the rest of your pack!"
The bleeding wolf hunched down on its legs, snarling as it prepared to spring towards Freya's face and the barrier surrounding it once more. Spittle mixed with blood dripped down from its exposed teeth, as the fierce growl emitting from its throat intensified.
"Thought as much!"
Freya drew upon the magical energy that was now flowing through her body in violent tidal waves, as she readied an incantation in her mind. She was going to have to be quick with her magics if her newly form plan had any hope of working before the feral wolf managed to tear her apart. For the spell to be successful there could be no obstruction between her and her foe - physical or mystical.
Drawing in a deep breath, the witch let her eyes fall closed, as she purposely dropped the energy barrier between Keelin's animal form and herself, whilst rapidly shouting out an invocation.
"ANIMUS MEUS IN TUIS ANIMO, VISION TUUM QUOD MIA VISION..."
The wolf leaped forward, having sensed the removal of the protective barrier around Freya's body. Its mouth opened wide ready to bite down on the witch's flesh as it closed the small distance between them.
"...ANIMUS MEUS IN TUIS ANIMO, VISION TUUM QUOD MIA VISION"
Freya's eyes widened as she saw the jaws of the wolf begin to clamp down towards her shoulder, before the whole world around her suddenly appeared to abruptly rotate on a nausea inducing axis. The Funhouse room and all of its contents quickly blurred out of sight - total darkness completely descended over her vision.
Silence and complete sensory deprivation engulfed the witch.
Did it work? Or is this the bleak emptiness of death?
Just as she began to fear that her switch of enchantments had not been quick enough, Freya felt her conscious crash land into its intended destination - the resulting astral blow almost shattering away the witch's grip on sanity. Instantly her mind's eye was bombarded with a nexus of different emotions and sensations, chaotically flying into each other at rapid intervals. But despite the unruliness of the tenuous connection, she could feel a distinct division between the types of images and feelings that were bombarding into her projected consciousness. On the one hand there was deep rooted anger and hatred fighting to overcome an increasing sense of lethargy and pain, which Freya deduced must be coming from the part of Hatch's mind that was currently controlling Keelin's wolf form. And on the other hand, a fellowship of growing confusion and uncertainty accompanied blurred images of burning fire and instances of corrugated metal panels.
Are those flashes of where the Alpha wolf actually is - the packs camp?
"GET OUT!"
A distorted male voice boomed all around in her mind, sounding like it had been contorted through strong static radio waves, before reaching her minds ear. Its tones were dripping in white hot rage, but Freya was sure that she could detect a small flicker of fear buried underneath its forced bravado.
"YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE, WITCH!"
Haphazard images continued to rush by the witch, swirling at a sickening pace. A man in dark clothing, walking towards them from a trailer van - blood dripping down into their line of sight, filtering everything with a thick red hue - a person flying through the air and colliding into the dark clothed man stood near them - flames of a fire flickering up into a clear, star filled sky - a blonde haired woman with wide, glazed over emerald eyes frozen in a trance as a muzzled mouth closed down onto her shoulder - complete darkness obscuring out all sight and touch apart from the sensation of fear - a group of people stalking towards a lone female figure who had glowing yellow eyes and sharp canine teeth...
Wait...that was it...go back...the dark void...that was where...
"NO! YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE, BE GONE!"
Freya felt a slither of optimism latch onto the anger and rage that was currently anchoring her own consciousness in the foreign housing. Keelin was still there - present somewhere in the churning mess of chaos that was currently filling the wolf's mind. Somewhere bleak and secluded - and currently being hidden away from the witch's own minds touch.
Summoning up her magical energy, Freya projected her own minds voice into disorder cascading around her.
"Keelin, I know he's got you trapped here somewhere. Follow my voice, force your way out!"
A cruel, heartless laugh erupted all around.
"FOOL! YOU THINK YOUR PATHETIC WOLF IS BEING HELD AGAINST HER WILL?!"
Freya pointedly ignored the male wolf's voice, as she continued her own calling out.
"Keelin, I know you are stronger than this snivelling creep! Come back to me baby, please."
More laughter filling the ever changing void around her - harsher this time, its tone somewhere between a sneering chuckle and the deep growl of an animal.
"KEEP CALLING WITCH, YOU WONT FIND HER! YOUR PRECIOUS LOVERS MIND BROKE THE SECOND I SHOWED HER ALL THE LIVES SHE TOOK AND ALL OF THE INNOCENT BLOOD SHE SHED IN THE BAYOU."
Freya felt a cold drop of horror snake its way through her mind's eye, as she realised how deeply the Alpha's revelation would have affected Keelin – someone who had always feared the violent and destructive side of her own wolf nature.
"That wasn't Keelin's doing, you sick bastard. It was YOU that killed those people! YOU manipulated her body! Keelin, don't listen to this asshole, you've done nothing wrong baby."
Another heartless chuckle flowed around the witch's conscious.
"AND I'VE NOT EVEN SHOWN HER WHAT ATROCITIES SHE HAS COMMITED HERE IN THE FUNHOUSE YET. POOR YOUNG HOPE - SHE TRIED SO HARD TO PROTECT ALL OF HER LITTLE FRIENDS…."
Freya's mind let out a harsh bellow of anger towards the presence of Hatch's consciousness.
"I swear to god I am going to…."
"Hope?"
The shaky voice was so faint amongst all of the churning disorder around her, that Freya had almost missed its presence altogether. Its tone was that of someone who was lost deep in a haze of confusion and fear, just wakening up disorientated from a vivid nightmare. And although the witch had never heard that particular voice sound so dejected and lost before, she would have recognised who it belonged to no matter where they were, or what psychic distortion it was being filtered through.
"Keelin, can you hear…."
She was abruptly cut off by another image flashing by her mind's eye, this one more prominent and clear than the others which had been whirling by in almost a blur – a female body hurtling through the air in their direction, on course to collide directly with them…..
"NOOOO!"
Hatch's voice rang out loudly, engulfing everything in its anger and drowning out all the other emotions and images that had been bombarding her conscious. A sharp flash of pain cut deep into Freya, causing the witch to panic as she felt her minds grip on its current location being ripped away.
Keelin quickly, I'm losing….
Everything went black.
3.
Elijah looked down at the macabre scene that was splayed out in front of both Marcel and himself, with disgust tugging at his lips as they stood in the entranceway to another of the Old Church's small annex rooms. There were fewer bodies present here, than there had been in the previous display of massacre over-kill upon which they had stumbled, but the viciousness with which these newly discovered deceased had met the end of their lives, appeared to be far greater.
As his eyes scanned slowly over what remained of the bodies in the room, the Original vampire noted how blood covered every inch of the annex's floor and walls, with not a single inch of the buildings original stonework being left untouched by the crimson liquid. Numerous decapitated heads lay idly scattered around the room, like gruesome footballs that had been kicked over a garden fence and left unretreived for fear of repercussion. In-between the ghastly sightless faces lay various amputated limbs and torsos sitting in their own pools of gore as the greying flesh upon them hung loose and patchy - the effects of decomposition having already started to take its hold. An intense smell of rot had hit the two vampires as Marcel had opened the wooden door to the annex, with tones of decaying fruit and musty old cloth coating their nostrils with an unpleasant film.
It wasn't so much the sight of all the blood and body parts that were causing the Original vampire to distort his face in repulsion - god only knew he himself had mercilessly ripped apart the body of many an unfortunate soul during the thousand years he had spent existing as a vampire. He was no stranger to the sight of merciless destruction. But the way in which these bodies had just been left to riot, hidden away in a dank corner of an old church, which mirrored the decaying flesh in its state of crumbling structural deterioration - had caused Elijah to break out into an uncomfortable cold sweat. Old, long ago buried memories dangerously threatened to jump into the forefront of his mind, taunting the fragile sanity to which he desperately tried to cling on to on a daily basis.
Turning his head away from the chilling sight, the Original awkwardly stumbled back through the annex's entranceway, past Marcel, and out into the main chamber of the old religious building. As he reached the base of the tall wooden pulpit that stood in the centre of the dark open space, Elijah steadied himself with an outstretched arm as he drew in a deep laboured breath. The sound of footsteps rapidly approaching behind him caused the vampire to quickly right himself in an upright stance once more, before turning to face the on-coming King of New Orleans.
"Elijah those aren't just the remains of random bodies in that room. I recognise some of the faces on...well, on what remains of the heads."
The Original raised a questioning eyebrow at Marcel - motioning for him to continue, whilst being thankful that his companion had not seemed to have noticed his brief momentary lapse in control.
"Those are - or rather were, the members of Vincent's coven. The witches for whom he was responsible for!"
Elijah's brow furrowed, as he quickly straightened the suit jacket which had been clinging slightly askew on top his starch pressed shirt.
"Vincent's coven? Are you sure of this Marcellus?"
"I'd bet a large chuck of my city on it, yes!"
The younger vampire sighed agitatedly, before commencing to pace back and forth quickly in front of the Original.
"This just doesn't add up Elijah. The man practically worshipped the members of his coven, and would do anything within his power to ensure their safety. Hell, tonight's carnival was supposedly arranged in their honour, to give them a distraction from all of the terror that the Hollow had rained down upon city a few weeks ago!"
Marcel continued to walk erratically back and forth as he spoke.
"But the remains of those bodies in that room, they have been there for a while - at least a week or two. They are not fresh like some of the dead wolves in the other room. Vincent has to have known about their deaths Elijah - he's been in and out of this church every day! So why hasn't he mentioned it? Why put up the facade that the Mardi Gras was for people that he already knew were de..."
The vampire came to a sudden halt, as he turned to face Elijah face-on with what seemed to be a look of realisation breaking in his widening eyes.
"Shit of course, how can we have not have realised it earlier!"
"Realised what Marcellus? Where are you going with this?"
"The Hollow didn't just disappear on the night that Vincent and Freya's spell didn't go to plan. Dammit, even you Elijah, said that he had seemed dazed and confused immediately after the event, and then left abruptly with no explanation!"
The Original broke eye contact with Marcel as understanding began to crawl through his mind, his line of sight coming to focus on the ajar door which led to the room full of blood and rotting body parts.
"But we've interacted with him Marcellus - held talks with him. Surely we would have noticed?"
"Come now Elijah, you speak as though you and the rest of your tiresome family are something other than completely self-indulged, egotistical, megalomaniacs!"
Both Marcel and Elijah's bodies quickly twisted round in response to the new voice that had filled the church's chancel. They were met with the sight of Vincent slowly walking towards them, seemingly coming from a small open outdoor tucked away at the back of the old, decaying building. The ex-regent witch had his arms held out wide as he moved, gesturing towards the two immortals with a smirk pulled across his lips.
"When we all know that the Mikaelson's are far too wrapped up in their own pitiful lives to perceive the troubles of others."
Elijah watched the witch with growing wariness as he heard a low guttural noise emit from Marcel's throat in response to the man's advance towards them.
"Such a pleasure as always to hear your kind words about my family, Vincent...or should I address you by your more nefarious title, Hollow?!"
The tall man came to a stop a few meters ahead of the two vampires - the snide smirk disappearing from his face as his gaze locked onto the vampires own. Elijah watched as the deep brown irises of the witch's eyes quickly changed colour, turning into a bright glowing cobalt blue, which lightly illuminated the immediate area surrounding the face in which they were set.
A hard, steeled expression set upon Vincent's features, as his shimmering eyes bored deep into the Original.
"The pleasure is most definitely mine, Elijah!"
4.
As she felt the last bone crack and shift back into its human position, Hayley slowly raised herself up off the muddy ground - her eyes still closed as she stretched out her tight neck and back muscles.
Once of the first things that the hybrid always immediately noticed upon shifting from her wolf form back into her regular body, was just how cold the world's touch suddenly was upon her naked skin - compared to the complete warmth of being covered head to toe in fur.
That plus the acute awareness that the transformation always left her inconveniently stark naked!
Opening her now returned soft hazel coloured eyes, Hayley quickly threw her gaze across the whole of the clearing at the centre of the Neivera's trailer park. Felled bodies littered the damp ground surrounding the camp fire, which was still burning bright up into the night's sky. Some of the corpses still had all of their limbs attached, albeit with large chunks of flesh in the shape of bite marks, now missing - whilst others had not fared so luckily. A distinct smell of coppery gore floated through the air, as the noise of crackling and spitting wood burning in the heart of the large fire was the only sound to break the otherwise peaceful camp.
Satisfied that there was no further immediate threat to her life, Hayley let out a deep breath as she caught sight of the clothes that she had been wearing before transforming into her wolf form. The garments had fallen on the sport where she had morphed her physical shape, and from what the hybrid could tell from her initial glance, they seemed to have thankfully escaped being tainted by the extensive volumes of blood that had been spraying around the area only a few minutes ago.
As she quickly pulled up her tight black jeans, and deftly re-hooked a red colour bra around her chest, Hayley scanned her eyes around the clearing, looking for Mary's unconscious form. She could have sworn the wolf elder's body had been lay over to the far right of the open space between the trailer vans, however there was now only a small pool of blood where her friend previous was.
The hybrid was about to make her way over to the area, when a short burst of coughing punctuating the air suddenly commanded her attention. Turning her head to the left, Hayley could see movement on the ground just across the camp fire to where she stood, as someone appeared to be trying to push off a dead body which was sprawled heavily on top of them. Sighing, the hybrid began to make her way around the large flames which licked the cool evening air, as her eyes remained trained on the moving bodies.
As she came to a stop a few meters away, Hayley watched Hatch free his remaining foot from under the blood soaked body of the female wolf that she had thrown at the pack leader earlier, just before transforming. The Alpha shook himself off as he rose up off the ground, and Hayley see that the man had sustained a large gash to the forehead and a split lip from the collision with his pack member. As he stood and put weight onto the lower half of his body, the hybrid noticed that the wolf seemed to be favouring his right side - indicating that he had probably sustained some damaged somewhere on his leg as well.
"That's far enough jack-ass!"
Hatch looked up at her, as he stumbled and lost footing on his injured right leg - dropping down heavily onto one knee. Had they not been surrounded by multiple dead wolves whom she had just viciously ripped apart as they tried to kill her, she thought that the Alpha looked as though he could be about to propose to her.
"Ah, and I presume that you must be Hayley, the traitor wolf queen who colludes with our kinds mortal enemies!"
Hayley let out a short, sharp laugh as she placed her hands on her hips.
"I think you need to take a long hard look in the mirror, before you go slinging around words like Traitor!"
The male wolf chuffed to himself and nodded his head, seeming to agree with her statement.
"Yes, it is true that I made a pact with a demon - and I cannot deny how terrible that may look to people from outside of our family. But I only made my deal with the devil to save my pack from being wiped off the face of this earth, like so many of the other pack-lines before us."
The wolf leader paused, eyeing Hayley up and down with a twitch of distaste pulling at his lips.
"Tell me hybrid scum, what excuse do you have for abandoning YOUR people, and making your bed with the malicious and vile Mikaelson clan?!"
Ignoring his question, Hayley responded back with one of her own.
"And does your deal with the devil allow you to sleep at night, knowing that you were required to kill an innocent little girl, who has never harmed a single living being since the day she was born?"
The hybrids voice had hitched up a tone and increased in volume as her sentence finished - the thought of her daughter's life once again being in danger causing the fury within her began to boil over once more.
Hatch shrugged lightly, and dropped his gaze down to the floor.
"She is to be unfortunate collateral damage. Though to be fair, better she be dead than be raised to be a monster by the moraless Mikaelson family! I'd say we are doing the little one a solid favour. And judging by how powerful the girl already is, and how easily she wielded her magic just now - she is far too dangerous to be allowed to mature into adulthood!"
Hayley moved quicker than Hatch's eyes could register, taking the pack leader by surprise as she hoisted him up off his feet by his jacket, and slammed his back into the metal panel of the nearest trailer. A moan of pain left the wolf's lips, as the back of his head collided with the van.
Hayley's eyes began to swirl with her hybrid yellow tones, as she spat her words out into the Alpha's face.
"If you have lay even one finger on my daughter…."
She trailed off as the man she held up against the trailer van began to laugh, despite the blood which was now flowing freely from the gash on his forehead, which had been torn back open from the collision with the trailer.
"Oh my hands haven't gone anywhere near your daughter! I can't say the same for the claws of your wolf friend though!"
Hayley's fiercely glowing yellow eyes widened with fear for her daughter, as she watched Hatch close his own and smile sickeningly to himself.
"Her young flesh tore so easily under the weight of Keelin's paws - i hardly had to make her apply any force whatsoever!"
A loud guttural growl forced its way out of Hayley's throat, as she felt an unabated, white hot rage rise up within her - covering her vision with a red haze and causing her arms to shake with fury as she continued to hold the wolf in place. Canine teeth rapidly extended out of the hybrid's gums, as she drew her head back and widened her jaw, ready to alleviate the Alpha's head from his neck.
As her mouth descended down towards the man's throat, Hayley just had time to register a flash of movement in her peripheral vision, before a hard blow of pain crashed into the side of her head, throwing her body backwards as her hands involuntarily let go of the Alpha wolf's frame. Further pain ripped through her head as its back collided harshly with the ground - her body landing roughly a few feet away from Hatch.
She tried to rub the blurred vision away from her eyes with a hand, as she slightly raised herself up off ground with her other free arm, causing the throbbing in her head to intensify from the effort.
As the clarity of the information feeding into her eyes slowly began to sharpen once more, Hayley saw a tall muscular man walking in her direction – a long, blood-stained metal pipe held tightly within his hands. As the newcomer came to a standstill next to where her bare feet lay in the dirt, with his arms holding out his weapon towards her, the hybrid had just one thought running on repeat through her worry sickened mind
Hope….my baby girl, please still be alive