When there came a point when Rebekah was no longer answering any of my calls, I then reached out to Elijah in order to find out what was going on. He missed the first two, answering the third with an apology, saying that he had been otherwise occupied to answer me before telling me that both Rebekah and Niklaus had been captured by the witches and now they were missing. That was it. "I'm coming right now."
"No, it would be better if you stay…"
"Bekah and Nik are missing, probably being tortured right about now, and you have three powerful witches on the loose with no means to track them since all the other witches are losing their powers because of the failed Harvest, am I right?" I surmised quickly, already grabbing my things in order to get going. "Face it, you're going to need me to do a locator spell, and I'm probably the only one who'd be able to get through any cloaking spell they have. I'm coming, Eli, whether you like it or not." I left no room for arguments, telling him to wait for a while so that I could call him back once I was on the road.
First I needed to say goodbye to my parents properly, not wanting to just take off without a word. Mom was upset that I was leaving so abruptly, wanting to throw me one last family dinner but I really couldn't stay any longer. Promising that I would be back soon and it was just a friend emergency, I left them after making sure that the protective wards and spells on them and the house were still enforced before heading out to the car, calling Elijah again. "Alright, fill me in on everything that has happened, don't miss out anything the witches have done. I need to know exactly what kind of mess I'm walking into."
"Are you certain I cannot persuade you to change your mind?"
"You know me Eli, not going to happen. Now, start talking." And so whilst I drove, Elijah told me everything that had occurred since my leaving, including the riddle that had been inked onto his skin by his old flame Celeste, who Nik had killed in the past and was now on a revenge binge unlike any other. Elijah was currently in the process with Hayley and Marcel to uncover the identity of each of the names, theorising that each of them was a previous life that had been stolen by Celeste as she jumped from body to body for the past two hundred years or so. I tell you, if I wrote all this down in a book someday, I would make a fortune unlike any other.
All the way through the journey I was receiving updates, and although I was glad that they had managed to locate Nik and Bekah, things weren't exactly looking up. The truth of Rebekah's past betrayal of Nik had been revealed to him, meaning that Nik had gone on a murderous rampage the moment he had been set free, and Elijah could only stop him by stabbing Nik with some kind of dark object, a knife used by a witch that specialised in dark magic. It brought untold pain and suffering to the person inflicted upon it, and Nik was currently under its influence. I told Elijah that he should leave the blade in there until I could reach them, that if he released Nik from the blade prematurely, then there was no way that Nik wouldn't stop trying to hunt Rebekah down. If I was there, then maybe I could try and talk some sense into him. Or at least, I could beat it into him. I wasn't really fussed on which method I used, just so long as he didn't murder Bekah.
Elijah, however, could not allow Nik to continue suffering, feeling that prolonging the inevitable would only make the situation all the worse when he finally did break free. His mind was made and now amount of reasoning would persuade him otherwise, so all I could do was hold my breath and press my foot down on the accelerator to try and get back to New Orleans sooner. It was now growing dark, and as I had pulled over in order to get gas, my phone rang again with Elijah's name on the screen so I was swift to answer, almost breathless with worry. "Eli what's happening?"
"It appears you were right, we should have waited for your return before unleashing my brother upon the city." Elijah spoke with a dry cynicism which immediately made me fear the worst, however as I gasped out Rebekah's name, he assured me that for now, she was still alive but she, himself and Nik were all trapped in the cemetery, and would be until moonrise. "Niklaus has managed to locate the white oak stake that you had hidden, and is now intending to use it on our sister. Perhaps you may be able to reason with him so please, talk." On Elijah's side, I could hear the ragged breathing of Nik, who must have been facing off with his brother.
"Nik, whatever it is you're planning to do, please don't. Don't hurt Bekah."
"Your pleading is useless Ophelia, so you may as well accept the inevitable. Perhaps you should think about what dress you would like to wear to her funeral." At that point I swore heavily at Nik, losing my temper at him for the blatant disregard for his sister's life and pointedly threatened him with a long, torturous existence if he harmed a single hair on her head.
"Ophelia, this is not the reason I was hoping for." Elijah noted to me in a pause I had taken to draw in a fresh gulp of air, so I calmed myself down again so that I could at least speak rationally.
"Nik, I know you're hurting right now. You're letting your impulsive anger and hurt dictate your actions, but I can promise you that if you kill Rebekah with that stake, which I would very much like to know how you got a hold of by the way, then you will regret it for the rest of your life. And you're going to live for a very long time." I attempted to apply to his better nature, hurrying to finish filling up the tank with gas in order to get moving again. "Think about it. In ten years' or so time, when your child is grown up and starts asking about her family, what are you going to tell her about her Auntie Bekah? That you murdered her in cold blood? What kind of impression is that going to leave on your little one? You have to remember Nik, everything you do from now on is going to affect your child and how she sees you. The last thing you want is for this baby to grow up fearing you. Like you feared your father."
"Do not bring my child into this! I am not my father. I am not Mikael!"
"Oh really? Because you're sure as hell acting like him." This clearly did not go down well with Nik, who snarled and made some kind of retort that I did not even both paying attention to. I warned him that I was on my way and that Bekah had better still be alive when I got there, otherwise he could kiss a happy life with his family goodbye, and that his child would grow up in a fractured family that would impact her happiness for the rest of her life. Although these things were cruel to say, I could think of nothing else other than to be extremely harsh in order to make Nik see sense and face reality. Rebekah, despite her past mistakes, loved him, and I implored Nik to remember all the times that she had stood by him, defended him, and chosen not to leave his side even after everything and that at one time, he had even abandoned her.
Now ready to move, I had no choice but to end the call in order to start driving again, so with a final word to Elijah to maintain the peace as best he could, I promised that I was only a few hours away.
I arrived in time to at least say goodbye to Rebekah. Due to some kind of unknown miracle, Nik had allowed her to live, even after stabbing Elijah with the dark magic infused knife, something called Papa Tunde's blade. I almost cried upon seeing her, managing to meet at the burned remains of the plantation house where we embraced one another securely. "You alright?"
"Yes, shockingly. It appears my brother is not as unforgiving as he portrays himself to be." Rebekah answered, the both of us sniffing and wiping at tears through our smiles as we then broke apart and her eyes then looked to the large swell of my abdomen which was housing her little niece. "Bye-bye little one. You be good for your mother and Auntie Lia." Placing her hand onto my stomach, I felt the baby move inside, making me jolt and grin as it felt as if she were reaching back against Bekah's hand, drawing fresh tears to her eyes. "I'll miss you both. Make sure not to forget about me, and once this one is born Lia, and you're free to move around as you please, I'd like it if we can get together somewhere for a while. Have some peace and quiet to ourselves."
"Somewhere tropical, I think. We've more than earned a vacation at a beach somewhere with cocktails. I could totally spring for margarita in a coconut or something." Agreeing that this was an excellent plan, Rebekah and I hugged one last time in order to say goodbye whilst Elijah hung back in order to give us our privacy. We watched Bekah leave, and as he came to my side his arm naturally rose to curl around me, drawing me in and pressing a kiss to the crown of my head as I continued to feel the overly zealous emotions riddle my nerves with spasms and tears, so relieved and happy that Bekah was alive yet sad that she was now banished from New Orleans for the rest of her life. Pregnancy hormones really sucked.
"She will be alright."
"I know." Nodding my head as I leaned against Elijah, I then managed to smile as the lights of Bekah's car started to shrink out of sight the further she got away. "She's the toughest one out of the lot of you."