A/N: Hey, guys. Hope you're all doing well. I'm feeling kind of depressed today (which sucks, because its my day off), but I'm hoping to cheer myself up by updating and hearing from you, my wonderful readers. :) Thanks as always to everyone who's reading this, with bonus thanks to everyone who reviewed last time: Elejah88 (you changed your username!), LauRa-ReaDinG-XoX, adela, kineret, Goodwillin1297, Saphhire1998, and Savage Kill. You guys are the best. :)

Anyway, I'd like to take a moment to apologize in advance for any spacing/formatting errors that may be in the chapter; ffnet's been misbehaving lately when it uploads my files, and I sometimes miss a formatting error here and there during profreading, usually with chunks of dialogue. I do go back to fix the file and re-upload it once these errors come to my attention, but sorry anyway for those of you who have to read it that way before I fix it. XD

Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 38

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."

Hayley took me to Elijah without argument, clearly seeing me as someone not to argue with. Or at least someone not to argue with after I'd just killed two assassins without blinking an eye.

We reached the shack she and Elijah had taken shelter in, and my heart constricted painfully in my chest when I saw how ill he looked. Trying to keep my hands from shaking, I knelt down beside him. "How long has he been this bad?" I whispered, touching his forehead gently and finding it scorching hot.

"Not long," Hayley murmured, kneeling down at his other side. "He only started getting really bad a little while ago."
"And you left him alone?" I hissed, resisting the urge to smack her upside the head. "He's done nothing but look after you from day one, and you bail on him?!"

"There was someone watching us from outside," Hayley snapped defensively.

"So let them watch!" I growled. "Who gives a damn?"

Hayley opened her mouth to fire off a retort but then Elijah gave a low, painful-sounding moan and we both froze, our personal differences falling away, buried underneath our concern for the vampire between us. Without stopping to think I pulled him closer, cradling his head in my lap. Hayley gave me a funny look but didn't object, just taking his hand in hers and squeezing gently, rubbing her thumb in slow, soothing circles across his knuckles. Elijah moaned again, thrashing slightly as whatever visions the fever thrust upon him took hold. Before I realized what was happening, those visions pulled me and Hayley in, sucking us in with no regard for personal space or privacy.

The first thing I saw was a very naked woman reclining in an old bathtub. Then I realized it wasn't that the tub was old; this was one of Elijah's memories, a scene from his past.

"Who the heck is she," I grumbled, feeling frumpy in comparison to the lovely goddess in the tub.

"Celeste," Hayley supplied.

"And who the heck is Celeste?" I growled.

Hayley just shrugged. "Someone he cared about, obviously." She nodded to past-Elijah, who was now leaning down and kissing the other woman passionately, their love obvious to anyone with eyes.

I felt like someone had sucker punched me, and my wolf-half snarled and prowled under my skin. Easy, I told myself. Relax. It's in the past. It's already done with, long ago.

And then we were back in the shack in the bayou, the grip Elijah's fever-induced memories had on us falling away as Elijah himself stirred from his uneasy slumber. "Please, Hayley," he said, clutching at her hand like a lifeline, not even noticing me despite the fact I was all but holding him in my lap. "This fever," he groaned. "My mind is flooded with these torturous memories. You have to leave."
"What is your deal?" she demanded. "You don't like people taking care of you?"
"There are consequences for those that care," Elijah said weakly. "I will not have you pay that price."

"So, you're having weird, retro sex dreams?" Hayley said lightly, her tone both serious and teasing. "Get over it," she told him. "I'm staying." A glance over at me. "We're staying," she corrected.
Eliajh blinked up at her, confused. "We...?" he echoed. And then seemed to finally notice me sitting there. "Zoe Storme?" he whispered, looking utterly baffled. "What...are you doing here?"
"You're such an idiot," I told him irritably, feeling inexplicably annoyed with him all of a sudden. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

He just stared at me blankly, and I sighed. "Drink your damn water," I grumbled, picking up the cup and putting it gently to his lips.
He glanced at Hayley who nodded in encouragement, then sipped hesitantly at the water. "Thank you," he said once he was done.
"You're welcome," I sad gruffly, setting the cup aside again.
"You've got blood on your jacket," he remarked suddenly, his gaze riveted on the edge of my sleeve.
I glanced down to see that he was right. "Huh," I said, my voice the very definition of dull surprise.
Hayley glared at me. "Seriously?"
"What?" I said defensively. "It's not my fault the asshole bled on me as I killed him. And you're welcome, by the way, for saving your life. Geez."

"They were after you," Hayley pointed out. "So technically all you did was clean up your own mess."
I resisted the urge to growl at her, but only barely.
Elijaj, meanwhile, was looking at us like he'd fallen behind in the conversation somewhere along the way. "You killed someone?" he said uncertainly, looking back and forth between us. "Who was it?"
"Some assassins sent by my uncle to capture me for torture," I said calmly. "Don't worry, I dealt with it."
Elijah frowned faintly, looking troubled, then shook his head and looked back to Hayley. "What about our other visitor?" he asked her. "The woman who was watching us. What does she want?"

"I don't know," Hayley admitted. "I'm guessing she's the one that left the mystery Bible on the doorstep last night. Would be nice if she'd stick around long enough to tell me why," she added, sounding frustrated.
"Hayley," Elijah said seriously, "you came here to gather information about your family, not to play nursemaid to a vampire with a temperature. Please, find her. Learn what you can."
Hayley shook her head stubbornly. "No, I'm staying with you. I won't leave you alone."
"I'm not alone," he told her, his tone gentle. "Zoe is here now, and she can keep an eye on me while you search for answers."
Hayley didn't look at all happy with his logic. "But I really don't-"
"Hayley," he said firmly. "Go."
She set her jaw stubbornly. "No," she told him, not backing down.

I sighed. This was going to be a long day.

Ezra's phone went off as he was in the middle of trying to convince a sketchy blackmarket weapons dealer to sell him an untraceable six-shot revolver. The shifty guy bailed, of course, the second Ezra looked away, and was gone before Ezra could catch him again, disappearing down the street as he merged with the rest of the foot traffic.

Cursing, he flipped his phone open. "What?" he snapped in annoyance.
"You could do to learn some phone etiquette," Klaus remarked. "I believe 'hello' generally comes before 'what' but perhaps that's just me."
Ezra took a deep breath, reminding himself that he needed to be nice to Klaus. Or at least not overly rude. "Hello, Klaus," he said, injecting his voice with false cheer. "How are you?"
"Oh, well enough," Klaus replied in matching tone. "Yourself?"
"Never better."
"Good, good. Now, on to business?"
"Yes, please," Ezra gritted out.
"Well," Klaus said, "I find myself needing to drop by and pay Marcel a visit."
"Okay," Ezra said slowly, not sure where this was going. "And?"
"Things are falling into place," Klaus observed. "A little too neatly, all things considered."
"Why is easy a bad thing?" Ezra asked, exasperated.
"Because it's suspicious," Klaus answered immediately, as if that should have been the most obvious thing in the world. "And on that note, I would appreciate some back up on this little visit."
Ezra frowned. "You want me to be your wingman when you go talk to Marcel?" he asked, wanting to be sure he understood correctly. "Exactly so," Klaus affirmed. "I'll meet you there in, say, half an hour?"
"I really don't-"
"See you soon," Klaus said dismissively, then hung up.
"Arrogant asshole," Ezra muttered, shutting his phone and rubbing the back of his neck. "Great," he said sarcastically to himself. "This is so totally how I wanted to spend my night. Vampire back-up. Dammit."

He wondered if it wasn't entirely too late to run down the arms dealer again and get that gun.

Klaus spotted Ezra waiting for him and couldn't help but be surprised. "I half expected you not to show," he remarked.
Ezra just frowned at him. "Why wouldn't I come?" he asked, looking puzzled. "You asked me to be here."
Klaus just shook his head. "Well, yes, but normally whenever I ask anyone to do something for me, there's considerable argument and opposition. I'm not used to such obedience."

Ezra bared his teeth in a snarl that Klaus now recognized as a wolf mannerism. "It's not obedience," the witch-wolf growled, eyes flashing gold.

Klaus found that he liked Ezra better now that the other man wasn't trying to hide his true nature. And the same was true for Zoe as well. Klaus hadn't hadn't realized how much of themselves Ezra and his sister had been keeping hidden and subdued until Zoe had finally confessed the truth of their heritage. Now that they didn't seem preoccupied with keeping that secret under wraps, though, Ezra and his sister were both more free with their behaviors. Except, he'd noticed, around his other siblings, which led him to believe that, for whatever reason, he was the only one they'd told.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He also wasn't sure, he had to admit, how he felt about their hybrid nature in general. The resemblance of their situation to his own triggered all sorts of uncomfortable feelings, feelings he was going to great lengths to avoid examining too closely.

"Let's get going," he said abruptly, gesturing to the entrance. "Best to get this little powwow over with."
Ezra just gave a shrug and followed after him, pausing only to glance around to make sure they weren't being watched. They reached a courtyard to find Marcel waiting for them. Ezra let Klaus walk forward, opting to hang back on the periphery and keep an eye on things.

"Klaus," Marcel said in greeting.
"You've been avoiding my calls," Klaus observed.
"Little pissed off lately," Marcel said tightly.
"Apologies for my behavior can come later," Klaus replied. "You have something of mine. I want it back."
"Sorry," Marcel said, pulling out a silver dagger, "but I can't do that." He held out the dagger, and then suddenly Rebekah emerged form the shadows and took it from him.

Klaus heard Ezra's sharp intake of breath, but didn't stop to wonder at it. Instead, he narrowed his gaze at his sister. "What is this?" he asked suspiciously.

"Apologies for your behavior?" she said mockingly. "You don't apologize, Nik. You just act. I've had enough." She looked at Marcel. "We have had enough."
"Look at you," Klaus said, voice sharp. "Finally in possession of the one thing that can take you down. How does it feel?"
Rebekah smiled, looking smug. "Great."
Marcel suddenly let loose a piercing whistle. On cue, a dozen of his vampires arrived on the scene, clustering on the balconies above.

Klaus laughed. "So this is it? The evil bastard Klaus has gone too far, must be punished. And by his own sibling, nonetheless. How positively biblical. And you, Marcel, is this," he pointed to the vampires, "your idea of a hit? I taught you better than this paltry excuse for a take-down, " he snarled. "Do you think you can subdue me with this!?"
"No," Marcel said evenly. "But I think I can with this." He whistled again, and more vampires appeared. More than he could count at once, filling in the spaces and gaps on the balconies, until there wasn't a square inch of free room to spare.
Klaus watched them crowd in with expressionless eyes, not speaking.

"Son of a bitch," he heard Ezra mutter, followed by the distinctive sound of a revolver being loaded.

I wasn't prepared for Elijah to lunge at Hayley in his fever, snarling that he was going to kill her. Well, he thought she was Klaus, so there was that, but still. I tried to intervene but he knocked me clear across the room and I hit my head hard against the hard edge of a table. My vision went a little fuzzy and by the time I'd recovered, a stranger was standing over Elijah's inert, staked body, with Hayley gasping for air, hands rubbing her throat.

"Oh, thank you!" Hayley exclaimed. "I thought I was going to die."

I rolled my eyes, pulling myself to my feet. "Who are you?" I asked the stranger, disliking her on principle because she'd just staked Elijah. Sure, he'd been about to strangle the woman he was supposed to be protecting, but these things happen when one is poisoned by a werewolf bite, so I was willing to allow some leeway, all things considered.

The stranger, though, ignored me entirely. Her only interest seemed to be in Hayley. "I'm sure you got questions."
"Only a thousand of them," Hayley said, before going on in a rush. "Like who are you? Why are you following me? Where the hell is everyone? And, if the people in this book really are my family, what happened to them?"

"I'm Eve," the stranger answered. "I'm following you because you brought an Original to Werewolf Country, which is pretty much the same reason why everybody else skedaddled. If you wanna know what happened to the people in that family tree, " she went on, "I'll sum it up nice and quick: Marcel happened."

"What happened?" I asked, frowning. "We've heard rumors, but nothing specific, just that he's responsible."
"He killed most of them" Eve informed us. "Later, the descendants of the ones who dodged death, he strong-armed a witch into putting a curse on them."
I didn't like the sound of that. Curses were serious business, in the worst sort of way.
"What kind of curse?" Hayley asked, looking equally worried.

"Swap nature around," Eve explained. "Inside out. Made it so their natural state is wolves. They only turn back human on the full moon. We're hunted by the marks we carry," she continued, gesturing the the mark on Hayley's shoulder. "That crescent moon birthmark- that's why I got rid of mine. I didn't wanna get found out."

Suddenly, Elijah made a reappearance. Well, not suddenly. A glance outside made me realize that more time had passed than I'd thought; it was growing dark now, the sun setting and the shadows lengthening. "Good evening. Think I might have something which belongs to you," he added to Eve, holding out the stake she'd stabbed him with.
"Are you okay?" Hayley asked anxiously.
Elijah smiled at her. "The wound is healed, the fever is broken, but for some strange reason," he added pointedly, "I have this sharp and lingering sensation in my back."

I rolled my eyes. "If you're well enough to bitch about being staked in the back," I said reasonably, "then you must be feeling better."
He just gave me a look.
I gave him a overly bright smile before heading for the door. "Now that you're ambulatory again, let's get the hell out of here, okay? I've had enough of this place for one day."
"She's right," Hayley said apologetically to Eve. "We really do need to get home. I'll be back though," she promised. "Soon. I need to know more."
"Keep that mark covered," was all Eve said before stepping down from the porch and walking off.
"What happened?" Elijah asked curiously, noticing the change in Hayley's demeanor.
She gave a hesitant smile. "I just met part of my family."

Marcel's vampires surrounded Ezra and Klaus pretty quickly. It was obvious at a glance that they were very, very outnumbered. Klaus, though, didn't seem troubled by this. After a moment of self-assessment, Ezra discovered that he actually didn't care about their odds much, either. Which he supposed wasn't surprising.

He was just an unkillable as Klaus was, and these vampires had no interest in turning him over to his uncle. There was nothing they could do to him that would do him any permanent damage. Still, he was glad he'd managed to purchase the revolver. The weight of it in his hand was comforting, the metal cool against the skin of his palm.

Klaus took a moment to look around at their opponents again, then spread his arms wide. "Let's end this charade, shall we?" He raised his voice to make sure they all heard him. "Vampires of New Orleans! Do recall that I am an Original. A hybrid. I cannot be killed. Eternity is an awfully long time. How long, do you think, Marcel will stay in power? What if one of you lot were to release me, knowing I will be eternally in your debt? Oh, I would pity those of you who dared to cross me. I can assure you, your ends would be spectacular. To borrow a trick from an old friend," he held out a large coin, "whoever picks up this coin gets to live." He dropped the coin to the ground, where it clattered around with a glint before settling. "Now, which of you magnificent bastards wants to join me?"

"Anyone wants that coin," Marcel said without missing a beat, "pledge allegiance to Klaus. Take it now. Go ahead. The choice is yours."

No one moved, and Klaus looked genuinely shocked by the loyalty Marcel's minions were displaying.
Marcel, clearly not surprised, smiled in pride. "Take him," he ordered.

A handful of vampires rushed at Klaus. Ezra fired off two quick successive shots, the vervain-coated bullets tearing through the enemies' bodies and sending them crashing to the ground. Klaus took out the remaining attackers easily, flinging their bodies away from him once he'd finished.

They managed to keep the upper hand for a bit, but then some of Marcel's vampires managed to get chains around Klaus's arms, pulling at his wrists in an attempt to subdue them. For one tense moment, it looked like they might succeed, but then Ezra finished reloading his revolver and took three of them out with rapid headshots that sent them tumbling away like marionettes whose string shad been cut. Klaus finished off the rest easily as his hybrid powers surged, eyes glowing gold as he bit down hard on whatever vampire came near him. The toxicity of Klaus's bite, Ezra knew, would kill just about any of these vampires very quickly. They'd last maybe a couple hours, if they were lucky.

"Marcel!" Klaus roared. "Come and finish this!"

Marcel rushed forward, desperation etched on every line of his fine, but then Rebekah was there, clutching at the vampire in a way that made Ezra want to carve him into gator chow.

"No!" she said frantically to Marcel. "Take the coin!"
Marcel looked at her in shock. "What?"
"He won't stop until everyone is dead," she said urgently. "And he will kill you too. End this. Pick up the coin!"

Marcel considered this for a long moment before lunging forward suddenly.

Ezra brought his pistol back up, aiming it right at Marcel's heart, just in case the vampire tried something. Everyone else in the rom went very still as Marcel walked forward, the fighting coming to an abrupt halt. Marcel strode back to the center of the courtyard, bent over to pick up the coin, the straightened, holding it out to Klaus.

Klaus looked decidedly amused. "Well, well, well. The great Marcel, self-proclaimed king of New Orleans, bowing before me."

Looking disgusted with himself, Marcel tossed the coin down at Klaus's feet. "There. I hereby pledge my allegiance to you. You have the keys to my kingdom. It's yours."

A/N: And that's the chapter folks. Hope you enjoyed it! I know I did. :) I'm still feeling pretty gloomy today, but posting this has perked me up a little, and I hope it brought a little bit of enjoyment to your day as well. I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you! Did you like the chapter? Was everyone believable? I know we're all impatiently waiting for Elijah to stop crushing on Hayley and start noticing Zoe more, but hang in there; it's going to be baby steps for a little while, but definitely worth it in the end. :D

Also, if anyone's interested, I've posted a new Inevitable "Screenshot"; it's up on my AO3 and my tumblr if you're interested; it's called Pester and it's an Ezra quote with an Ezra pic. ;)