Family Meetings

Alex had decided that if Elijah would help them keep Elena safe and stop Mikael than she would work with him. Regardless of how everyone else felt, how her stomach twisted at the idea of working with vampires. It was strange and uncomfortable how okay she seemed with it, but Elena came first.

Elena and agreed with her and wanted to make sure that they had all the help they had. She had explained to Alex that Elijah seemed to be a man of his word from their brief time together, but he was clever and seemed to take things literally. Alex made sure to keep that in mind.

She had agreed to meet Elijah at the Mystic Grill to discuss their arrangement. Alex had taken a seat at the bar and decided that something of the alcoholic varieties would help calm her down. Sipping the scotch and coke she had ordered, Alex couldn't help but wonder what he grandmother, Nadia had been like. Elijah had mentioned that he had known her that they had been friends. Everything about her family seemed to be missing. Renee wouldn't talk about her mother or father, the Council offered up nothing, and the human records held very little besides a birth certificate, drivers licenses and death certificates.

Growing up, Renee had on occasion told her stories but not enough to ever fill the hole that was missing. Alex wanted to know what they had been like, see the family tree, maybe even some photos. But it was like they had never existed.

It had been tempting when she spoke to Elijah to tell him to meet at the Grill to ask about Nadia. And as he stepped into the restaurant, it was all she wanted to ask again.

Alex took a sip of her drink and tried to get herself to focus.

"Alexandra," greeted Elijah. He unbuttoned his jacket and sat down on the stool beside her. "I take it that you have made a decision regarding our partnership."

Alex wanted to laugh. Partnership? Was this a business arrangement? And Alex supposed it was really. Hunting vampires was her job, just this time it was personal. "Elena and I have," she said. "The other's rather plot ways to kill you."

Elijah smirked. "Yes, I'm sure they would. But not you?"

"No." She took a sip of her drink. "Elena and I will work with you. Together we can find a way to stop Klaus from breaking the curse, or if you want to kill him, I'm not opposed to that either."

"You speak of killing my brother like its sport," he said.

"Not sport, more like work." Another sip.

"Are you a vampire hunter as well as a witch?"

Yes, she was. But Alex wasn't going to say that. "Killing vampires is what witches should be doing. Your creation wasn't against nature. If we were to eradicate all vampires from existence, then nature would be balanced once more."

"Did nature not balance itself by giving us weaknesses? Sunlight? Vervain? Wood stakes?"

"It tried." Alex finished her drink. "But nature will find a way to restore itself sooner or later."

Elijah hummed and eyed her for a moment. She was curious about what he was thinking, and there were a few different questions that floated around in her head that she wanted to ask, but keeping this simple would be preferred.

Alex waved down the bartender and ordered herself another drink.

Elijah asked, "How do you know that nature didn't want this to happen?"

Alex frowned. It was a valid question. Those who tried to go against nature would find resistance. Nature would not easily allow itself to be changed. But if that was the case, how had the original witch been so successful? "I suppose I wouldn't," she said. "Without speaking to the original witch, I wouldn't know."

"So you simply assume that vampires are wrong?"

"Yes," she said. Why else would her skin crawl when they were near? Why did it seem like every witch she had met had felt the same way?

"Perhaps you should reconsider that."

"And why would that be?"

"Your grandmother didn't believe that our existence went against nature."

"Did she now?"

Elijah nodded. "Yes. In fact, she believed that our creation was how nature evolved. Nadia was confident in the fact that if nature was so against our creation that nature would never have allowed my mother to succeed."

Alex wanted to snap back and tell him he was ridiculous, but she couldn't. Instead, she sighed and swallowed her drink in one. She stood from the barstool and said, "I agree to disagree." It was a lie but he didn't need to know. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to see a message from an unknown number. It read: I have it. Wickery Bridge, now. It took her a moment but then it clicked. Mikael. He had the stake and was in Mystic Falls.

"Is everything okay?"

Alex looked up at Elijah. She put her phone away and nodded. "Fine. I just have to go."

"And our arrangement?"

"As I said. I will work with you. I have friends looking into possible options for Klaus and will update you when I have something." Alex turned and walked out of the Grill, she needed to get to Wickery Bridge.

She climbed into her car and quickly jumped on the road leading out of town. It took her minutes to reach the old bridge. Parking off to the side, Alex climbed out and walked along the edge until she stood in the middle.

In the years that she had grown up in Mystic Falls, Alex had always hated this bridge. Old and full of history if you asked any local town history buff, but to her, it was full of bad memories. In her freshman year of high school, her boyfriend of two months dumped her because she had refused to wank him off. Alex had gotten into her first car accident and crashed her junior year boyfriends car after she caught him making out with a girl she had once called a friend. And it was the place where her parents had drowned and where Elena had almost died. Everything that happened on this bridge remaindered her of why she hated being in Mystic Falls. The memories, the pain. Alex wished for the days where she could hunt vampires and forget about her stupid emotions.

"If I were your enemy you would be dead by now."

Alex smirked. She had felt the tingles on her arms flare before she had climbed out of the car. "I'm not as defenceless as you might think." She turned to face Mikael. He looked brighter and was dressed in new clothes.

Mikael smirked. "I know. I witnessed your little burning of that vampire. Rather brutal if I do say, and well done."

Alex felt vulgar under his compliments. Her body was more repulsed by him than anyone else she had ever met. Whatever caused her to react this way needed to be left for later. They had important things to work out and the sooner she left Wickery Bridge, the better. "Your message said you have the stake," she said.

Mikael nodded and pulled a delicately carved stake from his coat. "The last piece of wood in existence that can kill an original." He twirled it in his hands before slipping it back into place. "And I do mean the last. Once I kill Klaus, the rest of my children can go back to being unkillable."

Alex frowned. "Maybe, there are other ways to remove them."

Mikael chuckled. "You are a fiery young woman. Your spark reminds me of my daughter Rebekah."

Alex was unsure if this was a compliment. She had heard stories about Rebekah but there wasn't much to go on.

"Do you have a plan?" asked Mikael.

Alex nodded. "Klaus can't be far. I'm confident he will show up in town soon. We will need to find a place where we can subdue him long enough for you to stake him."

"Simple. Excellent. Nothing worse than an overcomplicated plan." Mikael took a step toward Alex. "Contact me once you know he is here. Until then, I'll be watching." Mikael disappeared.

Alex huffed. She didn't like Mikael, and the overwhelming sense of dread was causing her to doubt if trusting him was the right move. Alex didn't know what to do though. Klaus was coming to kill Elena and break the curse. Allowing him to become a Hybrid would mean disaster for all humans and supernaturals alike. Adding another thing that went bump in the night wasn't on the list of her priorities.

Her ringing phone brought her back to reality. Pulling it out, she smiled as she saw Bonnie's name flash. The young witch was a natural and she would develop into a powerful witch. "Hey, Bonnie, what's up?"

"I think Klaus is inside Alaric!"

Alex frowned. "What?"

"Klaus is inside Alaric's body and I think he has been for some time." Bonnie sounded out of breath and panicked.

"How do you know?" she asked as she turned and moved to her car.

"I was suspicious of his behaviour, he has been acting weird for the last few days. And I was going through some of the spells you gave me to study and I came across one that talked about revealing the truth within."

"Yeah, the unveiling spell can allow you to see other magic at work," explained Alex.

"That's what I thought so I cast it on a piece of paper, gave it to Alaric and it glowed. He didn't seem to notice but it reacted big time."

Alex pulled her car door shut. "Stay away from him Bonnie, let me deal with it."

"Okay, I'm at your house. And I think he left."

Alex needed to get back to Bonnie as soon as possible. If she was right and Klaus was inside Alaric than he knew more than they all thought and he had been watching them for days. Klaus would know about their possible alliance with Elijah and that Mikael was back. It wasn't good for any of them.