Although dead, I felt like I was surrounded by warmth. The shell of the stone that housed my soul protected me as it did, and I felt the presence of my ancestors keeping me company in momentary death as my body healed gradually from the fatal wound that had been inflicted by a witch. If I had learned anything, I learned to now trust my instincts before anything else, and that once I was awake, I was going to rain hell upon these New Orleans witches. I had no awareness of what was happening outside the stone that housed me, however when I woke up, someone had wrapped me rather tenderly in a fresh white linen and placed me back upon the sacristy almost as if it were a bed, though it was now covered in my blood.
I threw off the linen and my hand jumped to my neck where I found a smooth, flawless layer of skin without even a scar to remain. The ring on my finger was now useless, the magic having being spent in my one time 'get out of jail free' card, but it was enough. Now I had to find the baby, because I sure as hell wasn't going to let some witches make her into a sacrifice, and if they had done something to that child, then they were going to find out exactly what happened when a druid turned to the dark side. Having spilled so much blood and having to magically be replenished, it was now purely mine once more, meaning that witch magic would no longer have an effect on me, and I was back to my full strength which, as I leaped down to the ground, caused the earth itself to shake in the wake of my fury.
The ground continued to tremble as the sky grew black, thick clouds of rage swirling into life before becoming hurricanes which struck across the state, my wrath seeing no ending in sight as I made my way towards the Lafayette Cemetery where I knew those bitches had taken the baby. I had not seen Hayley's body in the church when I had woken up, and I realised during my journey over there that she had taken my blood that very same evening after I cut my hand, and since that blood was also the baby's blood, she could very well be in transition, therefore, alive. It was a desperate hope, but it pushed me on further as thunder rumbled and lightning flashed with furious power across the sky as the winds ripped through the streets, leaving me to stand alone in their wake but they parted around me, allowing me to move like an elemental fury towards the cemetery.
Magic permeated the air, so with a violent ripping motion I broke it, ending the illusion and headed directly for the tomb where the Harvest girls and Genevieve were preparing to perform the sacrificial ritual. I could sense everything going on in that cemetery, could feel Nik, Elijah and Hayley as well as the baby as I moved closer whilst bringing the wrath of the storm alongside me, the trembling of the earth intensifying to such a degree that the tombs began to crack and break around me, and the flaming torches ignited with a twisting inferno. I saw them standing together, facing the alter where the two Harvest girls were channelling their ancestors in order to hold back Hayley, Nik and Elijah all the while Monique crowed in victory. "You fools! To come against us in our place of power, in our strongest hour. You don't face three, you face us all." At that moment, the shadows of the ancestors appeared in order to help keep the three of them back, however their magic had no impact on me, so I continued to walk forwards.
"Your ancestors don't mean shit." I spoke up, making everyone snap their heads around to stare at me, my hands held out at my sides to build up the power from the earth as the weather intensified and the girls struggled to maintain their footing the wake of my constant earth tremor. "Now you deal with me." With an outburst of pure emotion, I sent a thunderous force directly at the two girls to throw them apart and break their connection to their ancestors, knocking them out whilst plaguing them with maladies of every horrific disease I could think of, giving them boils, warts and swellings which disfigured them beyond recognition. Continuing to stride forward, I ignored everyone else as Genevieve stared at me, frozen in fear as my next strike brought a bolt of lightning down upon the alter to split it in two as she held onto the baby whilst cowering in fear, crying out desperately and pleading for mercy. I had no intention of showing her any kind of forgiveness.
My attention was shaken momentarily by the return of the ancestors, Monique and Abigail, having fought against the painful diseases that now plagued their bodies, had joined their hands once more in order to fight the ancestors which I tackled with powerful mastery of spiritual magic, drawing upon my own ancestors as I opened the connection between them. A single beam of the heavens opened and white cloaked figures began to appear one by one, chanting alongside me as I stood against the ancestors of the New Orleans coven, and through our sheer might and power, quickly overcame them. Our connection to the earth was boundless and absolute, which made druids far superior to any witch.
I held them off until Nik killed Abigail by throwing a part of the iron fence like a spear through Abigail, killing her and weakening the connection of the ancestors, which left only Monique who stumbled out of the way, gasping and groaning in agony. Now I turned on Genevieve. She flung fire at me so I knocked it aside, my eye now fixated on the baby who was now lying on the split alter, but Genevieve was not so ready to give up. She pushed me back with everything she had, using physical forms of magic to keep me from approaching as my ancestors began to fade from sight. I couldn't run wild, I could hurt the baby by accident, but I was not going to let Genevieve get away with trying to hurt her, so in the end, I tackled her physically to the ground. So full was my rage that I boycotted magic and punched her in the face, powering my fists repeatedly against her until I felt the satisfying crunch of her nose, the two of us tumbling down the steps as she threw me off before she then tried to choke me with some rope.
With a snap of my fingers I severed the rope and manipulated it into a long whip and struck her with it instead, towering over her as she fell to her knees. "Beg. Beg me for mercy, you spineless bitch." Feeling utterly ruthless, I struck Genevieve again and again, wanting her to feel as much pain as humanly possible until Hayley screamed, making my head shoot up. Genevieve was holding her back with a pain inflicting spell whilst Monique held the sacrificial knife over the baby, making my heart leap to my throat. My hand darted upwards, however before I could even manifest my magic, something sharp and fast flew out of nowhere and hit Monique in the chest, revealing the shape of a throwing star only after it had stopped. Cuts began to appear everywhere across her skin, bleeding her out all at once as my jaw dropped. The knife dropped, but I flung it aside with magic to keep it away from the baby, but before anyone could make a movement towards the little one, Marcel appeared and grabbed hold of her then disappeared.
I froze in place, however Nik was close to follow, pausing only to stand before me and grasp hold of my face and press his lips against mine in a searing, branding kiss of fierce intensity born out of his overcoming joy at my being alive. Then he was gone, and I was too star struck to even remember that I was supposed to be torturing Genevieve. Then Elijah and Hayley had their arms around me, a mass confusion of limbs before they were demanding to know how this could be possible, with Elijah scanning me from head to toe whilst rubbing at the dried blood that pooled from my neck. "Resurrection ring." Lifting my left hand to show him my little finger where the ring lay, recognition dawned on him, then I was lost in his crushing embrace once more.
We were all alive, and I took comfort in the fact that Marcel would not hurt the little one, and that soon she would be with Nik, her father. So instead, I turned my full attention to Genevieve, where I took out the rest of my anger on her as the weather gradually settled once more, releasing its hold upon the state so that there were no more earthquakes, hurricanes or lightning storms. Once she was thoroughly beaten and begging for mercy, I decided that I was done with her, and left her to the mercy of Elijah and Hayley, who probably had plenty of anger to vent on her as well. Instead I made it rain so that I could wash off the blood from my body as best I could on my way back to the compound, where I went directly up to the nursery where I found Nik cradling the little one in his arms, sitting in the rocking chair like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Nik." My voice broke the spell he was under, and soon placed him in a new enchantment.
He was on his feet in an instant, though slower than usual on account of the child, however soon enough I was being wrapped up in his arm and being pulled tightly against him whilst his lips peppered kisses against my face and hair, deep, shaking breaths betraying his emotions as he stood in near tears. "You're alive. My sweet Ophelia, you're alive."
"I was lucky this time, though I'm not in transition. I made myself a resurrection ring blessed by my ancestors. It was a one time deal, so this is the last time I'll ever come back from the dead, Nik." I told him before turning to look at the sleeping girl in his arms. "But let's not talk about that right now. Not around her. Let's talk about happier things, and put everything else behind us." Nik agreed to this and, placing his daughter in my arms to cradle and treasure, he then pulled me into his lap as he sat down, whereby he rocked with us until the moon had melted into the dawning sky, where the world passed us by blissfully in ignorance, as all of our attention became fully devoted to the precious child that was finally here with us in our arms.