When the time came for us to head out to this witchdoctor person, I let Rebekah know that Hayley and I would be going to the check-up out in the Bayou and that I would keep her posted. Before Agnes arrived I cast the illusion spell again so that I appeared as Hayley and she looked like me. It went very smoothly, Agnes none the wiser as we drove out into the middle of nowhere into the hot, dense outback where a rather disconcertingly rundown shack was situated. I'm already starting to second guess this plan. "This is the doctor's office?"
"Dr Paige is only this far out because Marcel's men kept terrorizing her patients." Agnes explained before encouraging us to go in and promising she won't bite.
"I hope she doesn't bite, I feel like if I get bitten by something out here, I'll either get rabies or malaria." Getting out the car, I walked on in with Hayley where we were met with a lady doctor who smiled at us welcomingly. She greeted us both, introducing herself as Dr Paige before asking which of us the expectant mother was. Awkwardly, I lifted a hand. So before I knew it I was up on the examination table with a cold jelly like substance on my stomach in order to proceed with the ultrasound.
Hayley stood with her arms folded, watching the screen as I tried to relax but I couldn't help but feel uneasy with Agnes acting all weird. She was up to something, and I wanted to know what. I will admit though, hearing the baby's heartbeat and seeing her on the screen for the first time was…serene. It hit me all at once then that I was actually carrying this child for Hayley, and as I lost the ability to breathe for a moment I couldn't help but wonder why she'd want to lose out on this kind of experience. If only she'd waited, she probably wouldn't have made the decision to get rid of the baby one way or another.
"Your baby's heart rate is perfect." Dr Paige said to me so I hummed in agreement, still listening to the heartbeat and taking a recording on my phone to show Rebekah later and maybe even Klaus. I lay there for a moment, just taking it all in before the doctor announced that we were done and gave me some tissue to wipe off the gel from my abdomen, allowing me to sit up and as I did so, she seemed to notice something on my shoulder. "That's a unique birthmark." Birthmark? What the hell was she…? Oh right. Hayley. I'm Hayley right now.
"Are we done here?" I asked, ignoring the comment on the birthmark since I hadn't seen it on Hayley before and had no idea what it looked like.
"Your blood pressure is a bit high, I've got something for it." This made me frown slightly as the doctor went out for a second. Rebekah had texted both our phones to check in on us, so I informed her that we were still at the clinic and that I felt like something was off. My blood pressure was fine. Perfect, in fact, which begs the reason why did the doctor tell me it was a little high? The sound of a wolf howling caught Hayley's attention and I quirked an eyebrow in alarm. This place was freaky, like nightmare central. If the bugs didn't kill you, I'm pretty sure the alligators will.
Glancing out, the both of us saw a pair of headlights coming in through the window which only made me all the more certain that something was up. "Be ready to run." I murmured to Hayley before the doctor came back in, handing me some pills to take but I pointedly refused to ingest them. "So can we go now? I'd really like to go home now." I said a little more loudly than necessary as I craned my neck, looking out to where Agnes was waiting and saw several men walk in, and that was the final thread of patience I possessed.
Throwing out my hand the door slammed shut with a burst of magic as I locked it with a seal, turning just as Hayley cried out in warning and grabbed hold of the doctor's wrist as she tried to stab me with a needle. Hell no. I've been in that position before and I'll be damned if I'm to go through it again. Thinking quickly, Hayley rushed over and kneed the doctor in the gut, winding her with a grunt before we then twisted the syringe free and pushed the sedative into her bloodstream instead, knocking her out and letting her drop as the guys started to hammer away at the door. "Window, go! That door won't hold them." Despite being sealed shut, they could still break it down, so I think it's time we cut this little appointment short.
Hayley was the first to the window, yanking at it to slide it open before then slipping out into the dark as I then followed, her hands helping to catch me so that I had a softer landing before I grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her into the trees in order to run, hearing the men shouting behind us. "Who are they?"
"They felt like witches, and they are not friendly." Dropping the illusion around us both, we ran for all we were worth into the night in order to hide and figure out a better strategy of attack rather than just run for it. They were close on our heels, having gone out of the clinic after figuring out we'd escaped and there were more of them than I'd expected. "Stay close." Whispering as not to be overheard, Hayley and I hid behind a tree as I turned my hand outwards and pulled at the magic, causing several roots to grow up out of the ground and curl over to catch the witches by their feet, making them trip before the roots then snapped them up, making them yell as they were dragged off into the darkness and I had the magic knock them out.
This made them scatter slightly, uncertain of what was going on so once we had an opening, Hayley and I ran again. A huge bear of a man cut across our path and I skidded to a halt, freezing up but Hayley kept on running, giving a ferocious snarl as she leaped at him with a lash of her foot, kicking him down before turning to face the other that had come at her, and I just watched as she totally kicked their asses. She took on three of them all by herself, not needing my help whatsoever. "Has anyone ever told you how badass you are?" I wondered aloud, and Hayley managed to flash me a grin before more of them came at us.
Flinging out my hand, I sent one of them flying backwards and now they caught onto the fact that I had magic, making them panic. "She's using magic! Watch her!" Yeah, like that's going to help you at all. The men all had weapons, being unable to use magic of their own without getting found out, so when one came at me with a knife I quickly jerked backwards then pulled the earth upwards, finding stones beneath the ground to release them and knocked one against his hand to disarm him of the knife before I then sent one of the larger rocks against his chest, knocking him back flat then left the heavy rock on him so that he'd stay put for a second.
The rest Hayley and I took care of with relative ease, instincts kicking into overdrive as they all seemed to gun straight for Hayley thinking she was the one who was pregnant, allowing me to take them out from behind. When there was just the one guy left, both of us turned to him, Hayley's eyes flashing golden yellow as she growled darkly and I held a ball of fire above my palm, ready to launch it at him when Rebekah suddenly appeared behind him and with a clean efficiency, snapped his neck. The sickening crack made me shudder, and suddenly I wanted to hurl. "Have to say, I'm impressed." Bekah announced, picking her way through the mud towards us.
"How did you find us?"
"Your text got me halfway, vamp hearing did the rest. Who are they?" Looking down, Rebekah kicked at one of them pointedly, the unconscious ones thankfully staying that way, otherwise Bekah would probably kill them too.
"Witches, courtesy of Agnes. The doctor was in on it too, and I think they wanted to kill Hayley and the baby. Seemed that way to me." I informed her as I pulled at my hair, twisting it back out of my face then started to rub my next. I need to get out of here soon, I feel like I'm going to faint. However before we could allow ourselves to relax, more flashlights started to waver in the distance, heading directly for where we were standing.
"There're more of them. Run!" Hayley started to bolt and I only hesitated a second but Bekah gave me a look of urgency, so I turned around and bolted. We only got a few feet away, Rebekah mumbling under her breath about how inconvenient this all was, when I heard her gasp and the sound of ripping flesh and breaking bone so I whirled around.
"Bekah!" Screaming in alarm when I saw her fall, the dim moonlight outlining two wooden shafts protruding out of her chest, I started to run back towards her but Hayley grabbed hold of my arm to stop me, telling me to wait a moment but then I heard the sound of an arrow whistling towards us. With a yell I flung out my arm and the arrow shattered against a barrier as I then held my hands over the ground, turning as I burned a circle into the earth which bloomed with light as a Celtic knot formed with an amber gold glow. "Stay here." I instructed, the barrier now formed as I then stepped out.
The witches continued coming towards us, the lights shining towards us before landing on my face and I squinted slightly against it before summoning a rush of magic to me, the ground quaking and the earth starting to rip itself upwards as I prepared a counter attack against our pursuers, until I then heard a wolf howl. It made me pause, slowing to a halt until the screams of people being ripped apart filled my ears. A strong scent of blood hit me and instantly I dropped my magic in order to turn around and vomit, unable to hold it back as the smell overpowered me. "Lia!" Hayley yelled, hesitating before leaving the protective circle I'd created for her.
She ran to me and quickly grabbed onto my shoulders, helping to hold back my hair as I threw up again. This was the worst part of the whole carrying a baby thing. It really sucked. "Bekah. Go get Bekah, pull out the stakes." I instructed breathlessly before hurling a third time. Hayley reluctantly left me in order to go help Rebekah. By this point the screaming had almost stopped, though I heard the twang of a crossbow string snapping before Hayley roared in pain, making me quickly turn to look at her.
Already grabbing hold of the arrow bolt, she ripped it out fearlessly, hissing through the pain but she was already wavering, the wolfsbane that must have coated the arrow already acting. "Hayley!" I started forwards but wavered, staggering under the disorientated feeling that hit my head and felt like someone was using my brain like a basketball. Everything was pounding, making me dizzy and uncomfortable, like I was literally dying until I managed to grip hold of a tree and just breathe through it. When I opened my eyes again, Hayley was gone. "Damn it!"
Furious that this had all gone so horribly wrong, I staggered over to Bekah and grit my teeth, pinching my nose before grabbing hold of the arrows and yanking them out so that she could heal faster. I almost threw up on her, though I doubt she'd ever forgive me for that. Tossing them away, I then went in search of Hayley, not knowing where she was or who had taken her. Witches? Werewolves? I don't know, and I was a little too pissed to care. Listening carefully I could hear them howling in the distance so I followed the sound, using magic to create a light so that I could see where I was going.
The orb glowed above my hand, bright white and shining like a beacon as I pushed my way through this swampy disaster of a forest until finally I felt like I was getting close. This was a perfect moment to realise that I'd left my phone back at the clinic, otherwise I could have called Rebekah to figure out what to do. Oh well, guess it's just me out here. Great going, Lia, you were supposed to be smarter than this. "At least you're fine, kiddo. Don't worry, Auntie Lia won't ever let anyone hurt you. Let's go get you mom back, okay?"
Talking aloud made me feel somewhat better, though I had a disgusting aftertaste in my mouth from all the vomiting so I swished some saliva around before spitting it out, stalking closer to where I'd heard the wolf, or wolves, howling. That's when I found Hayley, unconscious and laying in the middle of nowhere with a wolf standing over her, licking at the wound in her shoulder. The moment it heard me coming it looked up and growled, so I lifted a hand to signal I wasn't a threat. "Easy, I'm Hayley's friend. I can heal her injury and cure the wolfsbane in her system. Just let me come over there." The wolf considered me for a moment, and I wondered how it could be in a wolf form when it wasn't even a full moon. We'll come to that later.
Dipping its head, the wolf got up and trotted away, disappearing from sight but I remained fully aware of the fact that intense yellow eyes were watching me. Throwing the light orb up into the air so that it would give me a better light source, I turned Hayley over to check out the wound in her shoulder. At least it hit nothing major and wasn't fatal, just inconvenient. I drew on the element of light in order to heal her and fire to purify the wolfsbane in her body. It was probably a good thing she was unconscious, because the latter part would have hurt. It was a quick and easy spell, and soon enough there wasn't even a scar left to show for it. Just blood and dirt. "Hayley? Hayley you okay?"
"Hm…where are we?"
"In literally the worst place I have ever visited in my life. Hopefully, we'll never end up back out here again. As it turns out, I'm not a swamp kinda girl." She smiled faintly at me, still a little disorientated so I helped her to her feet, pulling an arm over my neck. "You're okay, I've got you. You had a nasty injury there, but I think the wolf that saved us managed to pull it out before I got here. You're all healed up now, so count yourself lucky."
"Wolf?"
"You didn't see them?"
"No, I don't really remember anything except being dragged by something." She murmured, stumbling a little so together, we began to make our way back to the clinic, though I depended on magic to find the way. That last spell seemed to do me in, but at least by that point Hayley was fully awake and recovered, so she was able to help carry me along instead as I struggled to even really focus. When we got to the clinic, Rebekah had already called for Klaus, who immediately came storming towards us with anger and concern.
"What happened? Tell me what happened."
"I don't know, I can't exactly remember." Hayley answered as I pulled away from her, rubbing my neck and pointedly ignoring Klaus as I drifted naturally towards Rebekah who rushed to me, her hands gripping my shoulders as she examined me with worry for any sign of injury.
"You've completely healed. There's not a scratch on you."
"That would be me." I supplied, turning my head slightly so that I caught sight of Klaus out the corner of my eye. "Crossbow bolt dipped in wolfsbane, not a problem to take care of."
"How did you escape? You were outnumbered, unarmed. Those men were ripped to shreds!" Bekah said to us both, but the mere mention of those guys being torn to pieces just reminded me of the smell of blood and I wanted to throw up again. I seriously need to get out of here.
"I think it was the wolf. I think it's trying to protect me. Or at least, it was protecting one of us." Hayley supplied as Rebekah helped me to sit down, seeing how fatigued and pale I was and pointedly wrapped an arm around me so that I could lean against her to rest for a moment.
"The witches were supposed to protect you! When I get my hands on Sophie Deveraux…"
"It wasn't Sophie. It was Agnes."
"Fine. Agnes, Sophie, it's all the same to me, I'll slaughter the lot of them." Easy Klaus, let's just hold off on the whole massacring thing. We need to find out exactly what they were after first, and why. I had a feeling it had something to do with the baby prophecy thing Sabine had the other day about the child meaning the end to the witches and their magic, but I had to be sure. I wanted to know more about it, since I hadn't actually been able to receive any kind of vision about this child since I'd taken her into my own body.
"Not if Elijah gets there first." Rebekah reasoned smoothly, making me lift my head slightly.
"Where is he? I thought you went to go get him. Did something go wrong?"
"He's been in touch, and he has a plan." Bekah assured me, giving my arm a squeeze so I relaxed and lay my head back down against her shoulder. "All he asks is that we take care of you." She said that last part rather ambiguously, meaning Elijah meant the baby, and also whoever was carrying her right now. I can't wait to see Elijah again, it's been way to long. Months, I think. I've missed him and his calm logical sense of mind.
"If you were hit with a crossbow bolt dipped in wolfsbane, then the child…" Klaus began, suddenly realising that the poison was a risk to the baby and before any of us could make up an excuse or distract him, he'd levelled his focus to try and hear a tiny heartbeat from Hayley, only to hear silence. The change in him was instant and terrifying, going deadly quiet as his entire body radiated with a freezing pressure that made Hayley go stiff with fear as she stared at him. "Where is it? Why can't I hear anything?" His hands snatched at her arms and began to squeeze relentlessly. "Where is the child?!"
"Klaus!" Shooting to my feet I shouted out his name to divert his attention from Hayley, her eyes staring widely as Klaus stopped, listening to me as he continued to seethe with fury and probably a slight edge of fear. "Listen." His head turned then, enough so that his ear was trained on me as I stood still, letting him listen to the sounds around him until he was able to focus on the baby's heartbeat within me. Behind me Rebekah had also stood, ready to tackle Klaus off of Hayley or intervene in whatever fit eh was about to throw. "She's okay. She's safe."
As he gradually began to realise what that sound meant, Klaus turned to look at me in confusion and uncertainty, letting go of Hayley to focus on me. "What have you done?" His voice quivered with rage, the hardness in his eyes making me sigh as I reached up to rub at my neck.
"Hayley decided that she couldn't carry the child anymore, so she asked me to get rid of it." I began and Klaus immediately started to growl and turn to Hayley but I continued talking, forcing him to focus on me still. "But I couldn't do that, so I offered a compromise. Your baby is safe, Niklaus, just with me instead. We decided it was in the child's best interest, since I'm the one who can truly protect her from anyone who'll try and come after her. My magic forms a natural barrier around her, she's protected, safe, and she'll stay that way until she's ready to be born. I offered myself as a surrogate, since we didn't really have any other option." He stared at me like he didn't believe a word that was coming out of my mouth.
"It's true, Nik. Lia is carrying your child now, just like a surrogate."
"You knew of this? All of you knew?" Damn it, here we go. A full blown Klaus temper tantrum. "And none of you thought to tell me?!"
"We thought you would reject the idea." Bekah reasoned shortly, already reaching out to grip onto my shoulder in preparation to pull me out of the way just in case. "Besides, it was Hayley's choice whether or not to keep the baby, at least this way the child still lives." He looked like he was about to explode.
"I am the child's father! I have every right to be involved in such a monumental decision!" If Klaus had magic, I had a feeling we would be enduring storms, tsunamis and earthquakes right now. What's worse, I knew he was right. His thunderous outcry echoed all around us, everyone remaining silent until the last of his echo faded, leaving us in stony silence. Taking a breath, I started to go down the steps, pulling away from Bekah's hand on my shoulder in order to approach Klaus who stared at me with such rage and even hatred, that it actually frightened me a little.
"You're right." I told him honestly, not having the energy to argue with him right now. "And I'm sorry. We should've talked it over with you first. You're right." My hand pressed against the side of his face, wanting to try and calm him down at least enough to keep him from going on a killing spree out of anger. "But right now, I would really love it if we could all just go home. I've thrown up a couple times, I've traipsed through this bug infested hellhole, got into a fight with a bunch of crazy witches, I'm exhausted and I feel like I'm about to faint any second now. If you can just hold off with your rage at least until the morning, I would appreciate that."
With my fingers gently mapping against Klaus's face, I brushed my thumb against his cheek as I felt the light prickly of his facial hairs against my palms. It seemed to do the trick as he was completely docile now, looking at me with a softer approach compared to the furious glare from before. My head started to spin and I groaned, reeling forwards until my head came into contact with his shoulder and my hand dropped to grip onto him for balance, and this seemed to push Klaus towards prioritising the baby over flying off the handle. "Easy sweetheart, easy." Murmuring into my hair as he helped keep me upright, I felt his hand come to my hair in order to stroke it back. "I've got you."
Unable to help it, I smiled secretly against him. He smelled good. Much better than this place anyway. In fact it actually seemed to help settle my stomach, and after I'd regained my senses I was able to get myself into the car as Rebekah went back into the clinic to collect my jacket and phone that I'd left behind, returning both to me. It was a silent journey all the way back but I slept for most of it, too exhausted to care about the tension though when we got back, I woke with a start and blinked blearily, struggling to properly wake up as my door opened and someone unbuckled me. "You can continue sleeping, Ophelia. I've got you."
"Nik." Mewling pathetically, I curled my arms around his neck as he reached in for me. Without any indication of the simmering anger he was still holding down within, he carried me inside and up to my room, much to Bekah and Hayley's shock, unused to seeing him act like this. All the way he carried me into my room then lay me out on the bed where I woke up enough to remember the recording I'd taken of the baby's heartbeat. "Wait." Groaning softly, I rolled onto my side and grabbed hold of Klaus's hand as he'd started to pull back, looking at my phone in order to find the recording then played it out loud for him. "That's the baby's heartbeat. I took photos of the scan too. Take a look." Leaving him in the care of my phone, I let go of him then turned over again in order to sleep, crashing even before Klaus had the chance to answer.