Months had passed. Months that have felt like years. Months that were fill with distance and hunger and sorrow. Hayley and I have grown distant with each other. She had become distant with everyone. The only time I saw her was when I was running in my wolf form through the bayou and I saw her in her wolf form. She was beautiful. She had dark brown, tan, white, golden, black fur with orange eyes. She had marble markings that swirled throughout her fur. She spent most of her time in the bayou while I spent my time in the city feeding on witches. Elijah and Klaus had closed and locked the gates to the compound to keep anyone out. We had a part to play. After we sent Hope off to be protected by Rebekah, we had to act the part. We had to pretend that when Marcel took the baby from the cemetery, she died. It was the only way to protect her. Though we knew she was alive, the fact that we had to send her away drove Hayley and Klaus mad. To not have the ability to watch their little girl grow up. Their moods affected us all. Klaus was rubbing off on Elijah and Hayley's newfound appetite was rubbing off on me. One particular evening, out of anger, I snagged two witches off the street and dragged them into the compound through the back way. I shifted, blood caked to my naked skin as I dragged the witches in by their throats, one in each hand. I never saw Elijah or Klaus much these days, so I wasn't worried about either one of them seeing me. Besides, if they did, why would I care? I had nothing to hide. And blood stained every single curve on my body. A blood trail was left behind me as I heard Camille's voice in the courtyard. I froze and perked my ears.
"Klaus?" I heard her call out. No, no, no, no, no, no. She couldn't be here. I had to send her away by any means necessarily. I walked out into the courtyard that was still filled with the furniture, but they were all covered with off-white sheets. "Klaus?" Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a shadow in the corner of the compound, and I could only assume that it was Klaus, longing to talk to Camille but knowing he had to keep up his façade. "Klaus, I know you're here somewhere. We need to talk." The shadow disappeared and I used the opportunity to vamp speed in front of Camille, still naked and still holding the bloody witches by their throats in each of my hands.
"He doesn't want to see you." I snarled; my voice laced with quiet thunder. "Go away." Camille gasped in surprise.
"Hayden." She cleared her throat as she tried to look away from my stark body, but I never broke eye contact with her. "Where the hell did you come from?" I raised my eyebrows at her.
"Excuse me? You come into my home and then ask me where did I come from? You're not welcome here, Camille, go away. Now." I let out a low menacing snarl, threatening her. I hated this façade, but it was one that I need to play in order to sell the story. "He doesn't talk to anyone these days and I'm certainly in no mood to talk to anyone, especially trespassers. Now leave before it gets dangerous." I flashed my fangs are her. A sense of pride rose in my gut for this human. I had to give this woman credit. If it were any other woman, they would have run screaming for the hills. Camille stood her ground and never flinched at the monstrosity in front of her.
"I'm already in danger. Guerreras following me like it's a police state. The city's run by gangsters. You aren't doing anything about it. Aren't you supposed to be the emissary?" I snarled loudly at the sound of that word. I was nothing. I failed as an emissary. I was nothing but a monster now.
"That role was nullified the second the werewolves took over."
"Marcel took them out one hundred years ago without you. Don't you think he might be up for lending you a hand?" This woman was resilient and on a good day, I would have admired it.
"It's time for you to leave, Camille. If I have to ask you again, I'll drag you out of here by your throat with my teeth." Eyeing me one last time, Cami reluctantly turned to leave but stopped to look back over her shoulder at me. "I know Klaus and Hayley, everyone, is grieving but I know you don't believe that Marcel killed the baby. If you want to help taking down the Guerreras… you have a weapon across the river just waiting to be fired. Use it." She began to walk back across the courtyard to the exit.
"Don't come back!" I silently cursed myself as self-hatred burdened me. I looked down at my lunch and tossed the most drained body to the ground. Blood coated the dead witch's creamy skin, staining it with all the sins that she and her coven had caused. Dragging the second body with me, I made my way up the steps to my bedroom, sinking my teeth into the carcass's neck and drinking its cold blood. Sipping the last drop, I tossed it in the doorway of my bathroom and strutted over to the porcelain claw-foot bathtub and turned the knobs. Steam rose from the faucet and I hissed at the heat of the water when I dipped my leg into it and settled down. Pouring some bubbles under the running water, I waited until the water level was at my shoulders before turning it off. I settled against the back of the tub and watched how the water turned to a murky, pink with the blood that washed off my skin. My head laid against the lip of the tub and I closed my eyes, letting the heat of the water burn my skin, letting me feel something other than the hatred towards the witches and myself. The water was starting to turn to a lukewarm temperature when I felt a presence in the doorway of my bathroom. I inhaled and inwardly smiled at the scent of cologne and finesse. I slowly opened my eyes and barely turned my head to see Elijah eyeing the dead witch on the floor. "Come to check up on me?"
"You've had an eventful evening." Elijah mumbled bitterly, sighing heavily.
"I was having a crappy day… so I decided to go to the Cauldron to grab a bite to eat. Ran into some witches."
"So, would you like me to remove your leftovers?" I turned my head fully towards him and plastered a saccharine smile on my face.
"If you would be so kind." Elijah stepped over the body and walked further into the bathroom. I stood abruptly in the tub, the water slushing around. Soap suds trickled down my slick skin as I stood there and faced Elijah. He stood there in silence for a moment, his eyes locked on mine as he forced himself not to look down at my stark body. Never breaking eye contact with me, he snatched a towel from the stand next to the tub and with a flick of his wrist, he opened the towel and held it out to me. I snatched it from him and wrapped it around my body, the soft fabric comforting and warming me as I continued to glare at Elijah. "Don't judge, Elijah." I stepped out of the bathtub and stood in front of the Original vampire. "What I did is no worse than anything Klaus has ever done."
"I would hope that you hold yourself to a higher standard than Niklaus."
"I'm a hybrid, Elijah. I have a werewolf temper with a vampirism appetite. I'm bound to kill a few people. I've been holding back my true nature for far too long." I glanced past him at the dead witch's corpse before looking back up at Elijah. "And besides the witches are worth nothing more than food." I pushed past him to go into my bedroom and over to my armoire as I tried to figure out something to wear. I still felt his presence behind in the threshold of the bedroom, his gaze burning into my back.
"We attack the wolves tonight when the moon hits its apex." A sense of thrill rose inside me at the thought of a bloodbath.
"Well, it's about damn time. I'll go fetch Hayley from the bayou then."
TO
"We have the Guerreras where we want them." Klaus said. After fetching Hayley from the bayou, Elijah and I stood in the dining room with Klaus waiting for Hayley to change into clean clothes. "We have them waiting and worried. We know they're with no defenses against an Original."
"We don't know that." Elijah retorted, gripping the top of a chair with both hands.
"I'm willing to gamble."
"It's too risky. The stake didn't just disappear, someone has it."
"One enemy at a time. In the end, we'll slay them all." Klaus groaned in pain as he sat down at the head of the table. "Tonight, we just have to plant the right seeds and for that, we need help.
"We're taking the twelve original rings. Four sit on the hands of the Guerrera brothers. One on Oliver, one of Francesca." Hayley came in wearing tight dark green jeans with a creamy white long sleeve shirt. Her hazel eyes were hard and distant, ready for bloodshed. "Three with the home security detail and the rest scattered amongst lackeys. Each ring is distinguishable by its setting. Gauche, like those that wear them."
"If they believe they can get their hands on the white oak stake, they will come for me when I'm weak. Each ring we retrieve will strengthen me, but I will still be at a disadvantage."
"Ergo, any hope of our success depends entirely upon our working together." Hayley rolled her eyes sarcastically, bitterness rolling off her aura in waves. Elijah looked between Hayley and Klaus. "The two of you can no longer afford to retreat to separate corners." Klaus stood back up and glanced down the mahogany table at the newly formed hybrid.
"This is our fight. You ready for battle, Hayley?" Hayley locked eyes with him.
"Just promise me that Francesca doesn't come out of this alive." Hayley demanded quietly as if she hadn't spoken in weeks. Klaus smirked at her.
"Her head will be delivered to you on a silver platter… little wolf."
"I'll deal with the last piece of the puzzle." Elijah said as he began to walk briskly out of the dining room. "Hayden, come with me." Rolling my eyes, I left Hayley and Klaus alone as I followed Elijah out of the room.
"I don't need to be on a leash." I snapped at him, fangs growing with annoyance. I was annoyed at the fact that I knew that he thought I needed to be watched or that I was some kind of risk but deep down, somewhere deep in my gut, I enjoyed being near him. I found comfort in his presence that brought serenity to my inner wolf.
"No, but it seems to me that you have forgotten your lesson on restraint."
TO
Marcel was occupied trapping a group of werewolves in a warehouse right by the docks and took their rings. We left Hayley to guard the compound from any potential ambush leaving Elijah and me to take care of Francesca and her security detail. I moved with the darkness, becoming one with the night. My steps were silent as I snuck up on each guard, kicking and striking at their temples and necks. My claws raked through the tender flesh of their throats, blood splattering across my face and I reveled in the warmth of their life essence leaving their bodies as they slumped to the ground. They were dead before amazement had even registered in their eyes. The last guard rounded the corner of the house and stepped out of the shadows. Elijah stood a couple yards to my left, pulling out a handkerchief to clean off the blood of victims from his hands. I stalked towards the guard, hatred glinting in my eyes as I measured his size and the way he moved. He lunged towards me and I ducked under his flailing arm and whirled my foot out to meet his temple with such force, his skull cracked under the pressure, caving in. He dropped to the ground and I stepped over him and walked to the porch as the front door opened and five more guards walked out and stared in shock at the bloodbath. I gave them a serpentine smile, fangs bared.
"Good morning." Elijah purred and I charged at them, kicking three of them off the porch toward Elijah. I wasted no time to grab one of the werewolves by the head and slamming it into the railing, smashing his skull. I twirled around like a dancer and grabbed the second werewolf with both hands and squeezed so hard, his skull caved under the force and blood and brain matter splattered across the glass of the front door. I took the rings off them and tossed them to Elijah. Door to the Victorian style house creaked open and Elijah tossed the severed head of a werewolf through the threshold and it rolled before stopping at Francesca's feet. The mob boss was surrounded by her brothers and she eyed the werewolf head before looking up at us. Elijah slowly walked up the steps, fixing the cuffs of his shirt as I leaned against the doorway. I licked my fangs and smiled murderously at Francesca.
"Hmm." Francesca hummed, smiling. "It's fine. They can't come in." My smile grew at the memory of what Elijah and I just did before coming here.
"Can't we?" Elijah questioned her.
"Ha-ha-ha. Don't bluff me. You can't win." Elijah smiled and lean against the other side of the doorway.
"You mobsters all suffer from such hubris. Do you know Al Capone thought himself invincible back in his day? And in the end, he was sentenced to the wretched filth of Alcatraz… for which of his atrocities? Anyone?" No one answered. "Hayden?" I'd play his game.
"Failing to pay his taxes, wasn't it?" I answered slyly.
"Mm. I suppose the devil's in the details, isn't it?" Elijah looked around the inside of the house. "My, my, you have a beautiful home here. I was so pleased the city took my suggestion… to protect its heritage status and invoke eminent domain." Francesca's smile faltered as the blood drained from her face as she realized what that meant. "So, I suppose that means… this house now belongs to the public and as such, anyone can enter… without invitation. Hayden, would you please?" Never taking my eyes off the she-wolf, I took a step over the threshold without running into an invisible barrier. Her men took a step towards me and I unleashed the monster beneath my skin.
TO
After slowly torturing and killing Francesca's brothers, draining their bodies of every ounce of blood, Elijah and I made our way back to the compound. We entered the study to see Klaus on the floor in front of the couch with a canvas in front of me. He dipped his paint brush in the wound of the neck of a dead werewolf, using the blood for paint.
"I'm still not at full strength." Klaus muttered, not looking up from his masterpiece. "Which of the rings are unaccounted for?"
"Only one." Elijah informed him. "I must say, the brothers fought valiantly before Ms. Guerrera escaped." Klaus stopped painting and slowly turned on his knees to glare at us, his mouth in a hard line.
"You let her get away."
"Not exactly." There was a crashing sound above us, like furniture being thrown around.
"Sounds like Hayley's home." I said before vamp speeding up a level to her room. My eyes grew wide as I walked into the nursery to see the crib demolished and splintered wood everywhere. "Hayley! What are you doing?" Hayley whirled around, her hair flying and eyes wild as she panted.
"I killed her." Hayley confessed. "Francesca looked me in the eye and begged me for her life as I tore her apart, but I don't feel better. I don't feel peace. I don't feel anything."
"It's natural given what you're experiencing."
"Nothing about what I am, Hayden, is natural." I blinked at him as I was rendered speechless because that was what I had told Hayley when I first became a hybrid.
"You're still new to being a hybrid, Hayley. Everything is still heightened for you. You will get used to it." Hayley's hazel eyes glistening and sparkling as tears filled her eyes.
"I don't want to live like this, Hayden. I hate it. When I was living with the Crescents in the bayou… I finally understood the purity of being a wolf, the nobility. I killed eight wolves tonight before I got to Francesca. Eight of my own people. What's noble about that? I acted no better than a…"
"Than a vampire." Elijah's soft whisper sounded from the doorway and I glanced over my shoulder to see him giving Hayley a sad, sympathetic look.
"Everything has changed and not just for me." I looked at her questioningly. "Before this, you were generous, Hayden, fierce and protective, but now… you're ruthless, distant and cold. I was a mother, a friend to you, and now I'm a monster, your equal. Things are different now. You can't tell me that they're not." Hayley breezed past me and I stared at her empty spot in the room and let her go.