By the afternoon I was more or less familiar with the new place, and when it came for dinner Klaus insisted on having everyone dining together, meaning I finally got a proper look at Marcel and his inner circle as Klaus lead us all in a toast. The long dining table was filled with food and expensively arranged, he at the head at one end whilst I sat down the other, lounging casually with my head resting on one hand and the other tapping rhythmically against the wooden armrest. "Let us begin with a toast to our shared gift." Klaus started, tapping a fork against the crystal glass in his hand. "Immortality. After a thousand years, one might expect life to be less keenly felt, for its beauties and its sorrows do diminish with time, but as vampires, we feel more deeply than humans could possibly imagine."
Here we go, one of his speeches. I think the whole king thing was going to his head despite my warning, and literally no one else other than Klaus seemed to be enjoying themselves. Marcel and his crew were all tense, some of them glaring openly at him as he gestured for a bunch of smartly dressed waiters and waitresses entered, taking their places at the table beside each guest present, save for me. "Insatiable need, exquisite pain…" At this, the serving staff then took out a knife each and bared their wrists, and I'd seen this type of scene too many times to want to see another. I pressed my eyes shut, but I could hear and smell the blood as it was poured fresh from the vein into the awaiting goblets. "Our victories, and our defeats." Lifting his glass, Klaus continued his toast. "To my city, my home again. May the blood never cease to flow…"
"And the party never end!" Marcel answered, lifting his own drink up as I opened my eyes once more, glad that the bloodletting thing was now over. There was a brief pause where no one answered, until Marcel looked over at one of his followers in order to silently communicate between them, before that guy then raised his glass too.
"To New Orleans." Klaus and everyone else echoed the sentiment then, drinking their blood whilst I stuck with something a little more human friendly.
"I understand that some of you may have questions regarding the recent change in leadership, and I invited you here tonight to assure you that you are not defeated." Continuing his speech, I couldn't help but smirk to myself as Klaus carried on. He was loving this. There's no way he wouldn't be, lording over them and practically shoving their defeat right back in their faces, singlehandedly delivered by him. "No, my intentions moving forward are to celebrate what we have. What Marcel, in fact, took and built for this true community of vampires."
"What about her?" The guy from before, Diego I believe his name was, pointed to me so I arched an eyebrow from where I had been reclining quite peacefully, surprised that anybody had taken any notice. "She ain't the wolf. I thought she was your girl. Not this redhead." Why did he have to say redhead like it was an insult? I'm affronted.
"Had you'd let me finish, Diego, you would know that there is, of course, one further matter I would like to address." Striding down the length of the table as he spoke, Klaus then came to stand behind my chair where he pointedly placed his hand over my shoulder, allowing me to reach up and rest my hand over his as I continued to look utterly bored. "There seems to be some miscommunication concerning the woman who is carrying my child. There is no wolf, but this woman here is carrying my child. Consequently, I trust you will all pay her the appropriate respect." Although I was surprised, I stayed silent over how Klaus had completely omitted Hayley's part in creating this baby. I was just the surrogate, yet he was making me out like I was the real mother. I'll pull him up on it later, now's not exactly the right time. "However, I understand that some of you are concerned by this vicious rumour that I intend to use the blood of our child to create hybrids. I assure you I do not."
"How do we know we can trust your word on that?" One of the other vampires asked sceptically, eyeing Klaus suspiciously. I felt his fingers tighten slightly against me, a clear sign of irritation but a few strokes of my fingers calmed him down well enough.
"It appears I will have to earn your trust." He said aloud before then pulling away from me in order to return to his own place as head of the table. "Very well. We'll eliminate the root of your anxiety. You see, how I can I sire any hybrids if there are no more werewolves alive in the Bayou to turn?" Wait, what?
"Nik." I spoke firmly, sitting upright to voice my protest to his plan but he held up his hand, ordering me silent so I grit my teeth. Damn it, that no account asshole. When this ridiculous dinner thing is over, I am going to strangle him by the throat until he tells me exactly what the hell he thinks he's doing. Those are Hayley's people, her family, and he's just going to order them killed?
"So eat, drink, and be merry. Tomorrow, I suggest you have yourselves a little wolf hunt. Go ahead, have fun. Kill them all!" Lifting his voice at the end, the other vampires all looked eager and the tension eased in the air, but I was now fuming. Unable to stomach anything else after that rather sickening revelation, and the smell of blood also making my stomach turn, I pushed myself away from the table and started to leave. "Where are you going sweetheart?" Klaus's voice called after me lazily so I turned around with a whirl of bright red hair, loose and tangled like a mane of fire around my head.
"Unless you want to see me throwing up over your grand dinner party, I suggest you let me leave. You know I can't stomach the smell of blood right now." Klaus softened at that and let me go, so I returned to my room, glad that the excuse had gotten me a free pass. It's all thanks to you, kiddo. Casting a spell over my room so that no one would hear me, I called Elijah in order to tell him and Hayley what Klaus was planning.
"Ophelia, is everything alright?" He sounded immediately worried, probably thinking Klaus had already driven me to insanity.
"I'm fine, Eli, you don't need to worry about me. I have some news that Hayley needs to hear, is she with you?" Confirming that she was, I waited as Elijah put me on speaker, informing that Rebekah was with them as well. "Hey guys, you miss me at all?"
"It's bloody dull without you here. Hurry up and persuade Nik to release you from his clutches, or are you calling to ask for a rescue?" Rebekah wondered, making me laugh at her bluntness.
"No, not yet at least. I can take care of myself, I'm calling because I've been here less than a day and already Nik's cooking up an underhanded scheme to get the vampires on his side. A wolf hunt. Hayley, I know you said you had family out there in the Bayou, I recommend you go warn them to get somewhere safe and hidden before the hunting parties arrive tomorrow. My guess is they'll start as early as they can, so try and get there sooner."
"What a dick!" Hayley cursed, adding some other colourful superlatives and insults into the mix and I'm pretty sure I heard something crash. "He's gone too far!"
"Calm down, Hayley. Nik's not an idiot. He knows better than to announce something like that in front of me without expecting me to do something about it, so I expect he did so on purpose." I said to her, trying to add some reason to this mess. "Sure it's a dick move and as selfish as selfish gets, but we should have probably seen something like this coming. He's lashing out because he's hurt and angry. At least we have a head start on the rest of them." I said, wandering around the suite that was now mine as I explored. "He needs to gain the vampires' favour, which means he'll do anything to impress them. Especially Marcel."
"Have you had the chance to meet with him yet?" Elijah asked me as Rebekah murmured something to Hayley in order to help calm her down.
"No, not yet. Though judging from the attitudes from him and everyone else around here, Klaus has literally put himself in the lion's den. There's no one on his side, and I'm worried he's going to dig himself into a grave he won't be able to climb out of again." All Klaus could see was the end goal, and now that he'd reached it, there was no more objective. Next he'll want complete loyalty and servitude from everyone around him, and I knew it wouldn't be too long before somebody started fighting back.
"My brother has an unfortunate habit of never learning from the past, but I can at least draw comfort knowing that you are there with him. Please, Ophelia my dear, try your best to guide him. At this point you are most likely the only person he will listen to since we have lost his trust and favour. At the very least, try to keep the casualties to a minimum." Empowered by the fact that Elijah seemed to have faith in me, Rebekah chimed in at that point to remind me that if all else fails, I can just kick Nik's ass and teach him a lesson that way.
"I'll do my best. You guys just figure out a way to save the werewolves from the hunting parties tomorrow. Hayley? Everything's going to be okay. You just be careful out there. Don't let the alligators get to you." Bekah was not amused by my joke, so after promising her that I'd make it up to her somehow, I hung up before exhaling, rubbing my neck as it started to ache. There was just so much to do already and I'd only been here a day. First things first, I think it's time Marcel and I had a proper introduction.
He was easy enough to find, I sensed him coming towards me so I leaned up against a wall and folded my arms, crossing one leg over the other as I waited until he rounded the corner and started towards me but stopped when he realised I was there. "Hi there, I don't think we've officially met yet." I announced in what I hoped to be a chipper tone, standing upright in order to walk over to Marcel who looked wary and standoffish, looking down as I held out my hand. "Ophelia Martin-Jones, but since that's a mouthful and a half, you can just call me Lia." His eyebrow jumped up, seemingly surprised at my openness before he gave a smile and took my hand, shaking it in greeting.
"Marcellus, but Marcel works just fine. So you're Klaus's girl, huh?"
"Uh, no. Not exactly. I'm just the baby carrier, hence why Klaus likes to keep me close. Anyway, aside from all that, I figured it was time I met the guy who built…all this." Gesturing around me, I then folded my arms. "And also try and get a read on what you're all about. I'm close friends with Rebekah, you see." Marcel studied me closely, not revealing anything but continued to smile rather pleasantly.
"Now you mention it, I do seem to recall Rebekah mentioning a friend called Lia. She had some very good things to say about you. So now I have a face to match with the name."
"Exactly. Now, I'm just gonna level with you Marcel. I'm not just Bekah's friend, but Elijah's and Nik's too. Basically, I guess you can say I'm Team Original, but I'm also one of the few people who can reason with Nik when he gets a little…wild." I began to tell him, already having secretly cast a silencing spell around us so that no one else can listen in. "So if you have a problem with Niklaus, I suggest you come to me first before you go off planning a mutiny, because we all know how that's going to end. There'll be betrayal, and blood, and screaming and murder and a lot of nastiness we can all just avoid if we all just talked to one another. Trust me, you want me as an ally."
"Clearly. I think I could have done with you around a few weeks ago. Hell, maybe even a couple decades ago." Marcel said to me, folding his arms as well but rubbing his chin contemplatively as I shrugged. "So you're saying you can control Klaus?" Making a face, I winced slightly.
"I doubt anyone can fully control him, but I have a fair bit of sway. Baby carrier, remember?" Gesturing to my stomach where I was beginning to show the slightest roundness of a bump, I saw a softer smile touch Marcel's face, one that I took note of. "And also, Nik tends to listen to me when I say something. My last case scenario is when I pull out the stops and just beat his ass into behaving, but I've only had to do that a couple times since we first met."
"Now that sounds like something I'd like to hear about." Grinning, I promised to regale him with the details later.
"But back to my point, this wolf hunt Klaus has sanctioned. I'm not a big fan of it, so if you could discreetly suggest to your guys to not try all that hard to go looking for the werewolves, I would appreciate that. A friend of mine has got family out there, so it would really suck if they all got killed because of a vampire hunting party." Taking my request under consideration, Marcel agreed to see what he could do. "I also want to talk to you about Davina. I know all about the ritual, and her, so you don't have to worry." Lifting my hand to signal not to freak out when he went all tense, I pressed on. "I can teach her magic and how to control it. She'll benefit from a teacher, but I'm wary about what Klaus might have planned for her, and I'm also worried about what happens if the ritual isn't completed."
"She'll die if they complete the ritual, and there is no guarantee that those girls won't ever come back." Marcel reasoned with me, so I assured him I also thought that the ritual was a massive joke and an archaic tradition that should have been lost to time. "Huh…it's not every day I meet a witch with that kind of attitude."
"Oh I'm not a witch. I'm a druid." He drew a blank, so I explained to him quickly as a means to save time. "Old race, older magic, basically not a witch but I can do magic." To prove it to him, I lifted my hand and narrowed my focus until a flicker of light started to grow before it bloomed into fire, dancing over my hand as Marcel stared at it in surprise. "I know you have a rule about no magic in the Quarter, but since it's not witch magic, Davina can't track it. Don't worry, I'm not around to cause trouble. I just want to help."
"Well it's clear I'll benefit having you around." Marcel reasoned, watching the fire until I closed my fist and it vanished from sight. "But here's where I'm confused. If you're in tight with the Originals, why are you down here offering me help to keep things in line?"
"I said I'm their friend, not an idiot. If Nik is left to his own devises then I'm pretty sure it's unlikely there'll even be a city left to be king over come next week." Looking at me with a healthy level of respect, I quirked my mouth into a smile at him. "I know this must really suck for you, having everything taken away from you like this, and I apologise for that. It probably won't mean much coming from me, but I doubt you'll get anything out of Nik in a thousand lifetimes, so there you are. In any case, you just need to know that you can come to me if there's a problem. Just don't do anything reckless." Nodding his head to signal that he'd heard me and acknowledged what I'd said, I was satisfied.
Giving him a final smile, I snapped my fingers to break the silencing spell and started to move off to head back into the compound until Marcel spoke after me, making me stop and look back. "He's a lucky guy, you know. Having someone like you watching his back, he needs someone like you in his life."
"To keep him in line, you mean."
"Nah…to remind him how to feel human." Surprised by this, I regarded Marcel curiously before I then turned aside, hiding my face from view before allowing myself to smile. Now with a certain lightness in my step, I strode off into the courtyard where the light fell upon my hair and seemingly set it on fire as I touched it, thinking maybe it's time I actually started to take pride in my appearance again, still unable to wipe that dumb smile off my face even as I continued to walk away.