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A few days ago
Genevieve sprang forward gasping at the newly found breath in her lungs and clasped her throat. She looked down to see that she was naked and laying on a dirty floor and absolutely no idea how she was breathing. A woman was at her side with a blanket, draping it around Genevieve's bare body and she shook from the cold.
"Why am I alive? Who are you?" Genevieve's wide eyes set on Celeste.
"My name is Celeste and you have been resurrected for the greater good of the witches of New Orleans. The Mikealson family has returned after decades of being absent and this can mean no good for our sisters. This can mean no good for any residence of the French Quarter. " Genevieve's expression grew furious at the mention of the Original vampire family. "I see you remember them."
Genevieve spoke with gritted teeth and clutched the wool blanket to her chest. "Rebekah Mikealson shoved a bloodied rag covered in the Influenza disease down my throat. I didn't even receive the courtesy of a swift death after I was used for my gifts and I suffered weeks because of the selfishness of that family. But I don't understand why me of all witches to be resurrected?"
"I've been contacting the ancestors of New Orleans and they know of my plans to extract the Mikealson's from this city. The witches of our home have been stripped of their magic and I will stop at nothing to get our power back. I will remove any vampires that stand in my way. That includes the self proclaimed King of the Quarter Marcel Gerard. It seems your concection to the Originals both ended and saved your life."
"Marcel Gerard lives?"
"Yes, but he is a insignificant pawn in my plans. He will be extinguish soon enough, most likely at the hands of a Mikealson. But you are back to the living to service as a talisman of sorts for the ancestors powers. You are allowed access to their magic and I will bind my life to yours so I too will have access to that magic."
"Why are you not given the powers from the ancestors?" This was becoming increasingly suspicious to Genevieve.
Celeste frowned but answered honestly, "The ancestors wanted someone they could trust and needed a strong witch, such as yourself, to handle the magnitude of their powers and you can channel as much power as your human body can handle. I have been known as a witch that dabbles in dark magic from time to time but the ancestors agreed with my mission to help the witches."
"And the ancestor's know of your plans to access the magic through me?" Celeste only answered with a dry shrug and that did nothing to ease Genevieve worries. There was much more to this plan that she wasn't explaining but what could be done. All that could be done for now was to follow along. "OK. What is the plan."
Earlier the evening of Marcel's party
Genevieve was happy to be alive but Celeste's explanation of her plans were a grey area at best. There was more information that needed to be revealed, Genevieve could feel it, but for now what she was given had to be enough. The land of the living was a wonderful place to be and it was certainly better than being forced in solitude in the ancestor's purgatory. Genevieve ran her fingers along the aging white molding of the walls in the deceased Governor's mansion. Genevieve watched from a distance as all the Mikealson's and their guests left for Marcel's gathering. She watched as Klaus left with a stunning blonde girl and it was assumed to be Caroline that Celeste mentioned. Genevieve almost felt pity for the girl because she too fell for the allure of Niklaus Mikealson, as Celeste for Elijah Mikealson and Marcel for Rebekah Mikealson. The entire family was a wasteland no matter what sibling you were connected to.
Genevieve made her way upstairs of the Mikealson's current home and stopped at the end of a hallway were she found a study with sketches scattered around the room. Thin fingers shifted through random pictures of landscapes and unknown humans until her eyes fell upon a familiar face. It was a sketch of the blonde vampire that Genevieve saw Niklaus leave the house with earlier. There wasn't anything extraordinary to her about the sketch, just Caroline with her head laying against a pillow with her eyes closed, but the girls face held a peacefulness in the small smile she carried. It appears that this girl was more important to the Hybrid than either witch had originally imagined.
Discarding the drawling back on the table, Genevieve made her way over to a bar off to the side and poured liquor into a glass but didn't drink. She snapped a wooden pencil in half and dropped it into the liquid as Genevieve held her hand over the glass. The pencil swirled and stopped immediately towards the fireplace just to the right from where she stood. Finding the white oak stake was her goal and the obvious place to start was among Klaus personal items. A few previous rooms had already been scavenged with no luck. Niklaus was the most paranoid Mikealson and one could only assume he had the most enemies that would want to use it against him. The rumors of the indestructible white oak were that it held magical properties that preserved it from being burnt once used on a Original. That source of magic could be used to lead her towards it's location and it appeared to be working. Genevieve stepped towards the fireplace and ran her hands along the edges until she felt a hidden knob underneath the ledge. Instantly after pushing the button, the wall of the fireplace rolled away and Genevieve crouched down to see what was revealed. Her eyes light up like a child when she saw a white stake with silver metal melted across the top and dripped down the length of it like candle wax. Genevieve grasped the stake in her hand and a wicked smirk stretched across her face.
Klaus stood staring at the blank spot that Caroline once sat in and then back to the lifeless bodies of his siblings. It was rare but for once Klaus actually has something else to care bout other than his family. Caroline needed someone but Klaus couldn't abandon his family, certainly not without knowing what had cause them to fall. His gaze went upward as he felt the stare of his former Ripper friend staring back at this discomfort.
"I'll go find her Klaus. You stay with your family." Stefan went to step forward but Klaus grasped his arm with full strength.
"The stake that hit her was steeped in werewolf venom and it was near her heart so the venom will be pumping faster through her blood stream. Caroline won't be in her right mind so proceed with caution." Klaus released Stefan's arm but closed the remaining distance as he spoke. "If anything happens to her, I will kill you."
Stefan stared back at him, his jaw clinching at the seriousness of Klaus' tone sank in. He gave one nod of his head and turned to leave the compound in search of Caroline.
"It would appear that you and your siblings are now linked to one another." Enzo placed Rebekah to the ground gently and stood at Klaus' height. "Whatever they did to Kol effected you all."
"Well, it's a good thing your here to state the obvious." Damon walked down the stairs to join the group as he spoke, running his hand lightly against the railing. "Your brother is laying upstairs with a bloody hole in his chest. We got there after Kol was already down but the witch shoved something in his chest to keep him from moving."
"It can't be one of my daggers since their eyes are open. We need that spell lifted from the room." Klaus clinched his hands. "Wake Kol, wake them all."
"Just before the witch did her vanishing act out the window, she said the spell will be lifted once it's midnight and that's only minutes away by now." Damon crossed his arms over his chest, stopping next to Enzo. "I'm sure you'd like to know that the witch took his blood as well."
Without responding, Klaus made his way upstairs to the study that held his immobilized brother and the dead witch. The clock on the far wall of the study read just a minute before midnight and he placed his hand on one side of the expansive entrance. It wasn't the first time he had seen his brother lay lifeless and grey but it made him furious to see that someone other than himself did this to his family. When Klaus daggered his own siblings it was for their own safety, not out of cruelty. Blood stained his shirt but there was no stake protruding from his chest and no sign of what put him down. His eyes floated back to the clock to see it was past time and Klaus placed one hand to the invisible barrier and it went through into the room.
Klaus flashed to Kol's side and placed a hand to his chest, feeling a bump several inches long. Klaus tore the dress shirt open to see a long red incision mark along his chest. His fingers felt along the red line and Klaus plunged his hand into his brothers chest. A long thin object was positioned inches from his heart and with one rip removed the object. Klaus opened his bloodied hand to see a long white boned shaped dagger that pointed at one end and the object was unfamiliar to even him. A groan left Kol who was just starting to awake and he flashed upright with full vampire features exposed to meet his brother face to face.
"Where is that bloody witch. Please tell me she is no longer with a heart." Kol demanded but paused once his senses picked up on the blood that was spilled next to him and his eyes grew at the sight of the dead witch. "I tried to stop the witch from coming up here but she wouldn't listen. I protected her this evening but her death was not my fault."
"Stating your case already? Guilt doesn't suit you." Klaus stood as he extended a hand to help Kol from the floor and walked to exit the study towards the stairs.
"I don't deserve to have a dagger shoved through my heart for performing what was asked of me, Nik."
Klaus paused briefly, at the bottom of the stairs to turn towards Kol,
"For once the punishment that's handed out will not be from myself but by Caroline. Although her and the witch were not on the best of terms, she entrusted you with her safety. Whatever punishment that comes forward will be her choice."
Klaus let his eyes fall briefly over Kol's heart and a smirk left his lips just before continuing down the stairs. There wouldn't be any punishment, he knew Caroline better than that, but it never did any harm to let Kol ponder his existence for a bit. Both Rebekah and Elijah were awake and lifting themselves off the floor. Elijah was running a wary hand through his hair with the older Doppelganger at his side and the embrace he held her in made Klaus' eyes roll. All three siblings were still feeling weak from the dagger but being an Original certainly sped up the recovery. Before they made it any closer, a blonde flash went past him and knocked Kol off his feet. Rebekah stood over him with fury in her eyes and Kol could only muster annoyance at his baby sisters antics.
"Good to see things are back to normal already. I'm fine sister thank you for your concerns. Your worry consumes my dead heart." Kol stood to his feet and brushed himself off.
"Your stupidity could have killed all of us and the entire vampire race along with us." Rebekah let her spider veins tickle at the corner of her eyes. "How on earth did you let one witch take you down and all of us since apparently we're all linked together?"
"Celeste wasn't exactly waving a white oak stake in my face and I lunged towards her, the dagger pierced my chest in the process. It seems once the dagger penetrates your skin, there is no stopping it." Kol snarled back at his sister.
"You've seen this dagger before?" Elijah joined Rebekah and placed a hand lightly on her shoulder to ease her anger. "What exactly is it?"
"It has been centuries but I've seen variations of this particular dark object. It's a dagger that is filled with the power of the crazed witches that sacrificed themselves to make this weapon." Kol touched his chest were the dagger once lay buried. "The participants don't necessarily have to be willing, they just need to have their blood spilled on the weapon to release their power. Something dramatic like slitting their throat or puncturing the heart. Witches love dramatics."
"So the witches that Genevieve talked about, they are already dead?"
"Not necessarily. This object could be centuries old and passed along through a coven of witches. Any witch that doesn't fear dark magic can create one and as long as the dagger stays intact, so do the soles of those witches.
Klaus growled at the new information and once again there was a weapon out in the world that could take him or his family down. A thought flashed in Klaus' mind and his eyes drift towards the balcony that as now empty and once occupied by Marcel. He clinched his fists together and stalked towards the entrance. The Original family IS the most feared family that walks this earth and it was time that all remembered it.
"Where do you think your going? Your pretty little blonde can wait." Kol raised his arms and let them fall down to his sides.
"I'm going to pay another dear friend a visit." Klaus spoke without stopping.
Marcel flashed up and down alleys while dodging stray pedestrians on the streets. He was alone. There was no vampire army or trusted day walkers left to stand with Marcel against the Mikealson's. Every last one of them had been killed and the few that fled were not of any use to him. If those damn hunters had come sooner then this would have been a very different outcome. Looking back now, even when the hunters had showed up they did very little real damage to the Mikealson's themselves. Marcel was to help aid in killing the Original family and in exchange, New Orleans would be a hunter free zone on their "kill all vampires" tour. As long as the killing stayed to a bare minimal and the vampire population didn't out number the humans, New Orleans was supposed to stay a protected area.
Marcel stopped running long enough to enter an older building that was converted into a apartment and opened a steel door to ascend the stairs. It was a place just outside the city that his fallen friend, Thierry, had lived in before he was needlessly killed by the new vampires in town. Marcel reached Thierry's door and twisted the lock with full strength. The door was pushed closed behind him but still slightly ajar from the broken lock and the only light that entered the room was from a massive window that stretched the length of the apartment. Removing his tuxedo jacket, Marcel walked over to the bar near the window and tossed the jacket over a empty stool. A heavy sigh left his chest as he lifted the Bourbon bottle to pour himself the biggest drink of the night.
There was something more going on with the witches and hunters than Marcel was aware of and he smelled a set up in the air. This new witch, Genevieve, had appeared at the compound just as the hunters had and was apparently working with Davina. Yet another aspect of their plan that she carelessly left out and using the word their was being generous. Once Genevieve entered with the hunters and the Mikealson's were distracted, Marcel slipped away with ease. Marcel was no coward but he knew when he had to retreat and staying behind was a death sentence. As soon as the Original's realized he was gone they would hunt him down for his grievances. His first and most important stop had been to see Davina but her only living quarters since the church was burnt down was the cemetery and Marcel had never been allowed access. That should have been his red flag months ago but this young witch had befriended him and was nearly family to Marcel.
There were only two options Marcel had at the moment: stay and fight or run from the city he called home for centuries. With no vampire army to support him it was impossible to try to fight one Mikealson let alone all four. It was becoming quite clear that the hunters and witches were trying to squeeze Marcel out of the city and run the city for themselves. Perhaps the safe haven they want was for witches or hunters rather than vampires. All of Marcel's options of survival were starting to slip away one by one.
His inner monologue was disturbed by a light creak of the front door and Marcel whipped around to find Klaus Mikealson standing in the exit. The blood that covered his chest, face and hands glimmered in the dim lighting. His face was half shrouded in shadows but enough was revealed to see the fury in his eyes beneath his controlled face. Klaus took long controlled steps towards Marcel and he shifted his stance as his sire watched his movements.
"I shouldn't be surprised you found me but I didn't expect it to be tonight." Marcel lifted his chin high to cover the worries that filled his mind.
"You ran off so quickly Marcel my family never had the chance to thank you properly. It's been quite the entertaining evening." Klaus held his stare at his former son.
"If you're here to kill me then let's get on with it." Marcel downed the glass of alcohol and closed the last remaining foot to stand up to Klaus. He might have ran from the party this evening but this was the end so Marcel would go out with whatever dignity he had left.
Klaus lifted one bloodied finger to Marcel's chest, "You know, I have been contemplating all the tortures I could inflict upon you. Penetrated you with vervain soaked knives. Let the sting of my venom flow through your veins until you have reached delirium. Perhaps I would heal you with enough of my blood to restart the torture process." Klaus raised a hand to clutch Marcel's neck firmly. "It is the least I could offer since you sent Mikeal to kill me. Plus lets not forget the attacks upon my family that can't be ignored any longer."
"Don't forget to thank Rebekah for her part..."
Marcel's words were cut short by Klaus' hand being shoved through his chest and firmly grasping his heart. Gasps left his lips while the taste of his own blood started to form on his tongue and spill past his teeth.
"After all these centuries apart, you still have not forgotten anything I've taught you. You were once considered family and you seem to have the uncanny ability to slip away from me twice now. Our connection as family is the only reason I won't drag this on for days. I will make this a swift and permanent death." Klaus tightened his grip around Marcel's heart and pretended not to feel the emotions building in his chest.
"All I ever wanted was to step outside of your shadow for once and not just be the Mikealson family ward." Marcel spoke through gritted teeth, blood catching in his throat causing him to choke. "But you had to control everything and every person in your life so perfectly. You manipulate and twist those in your life to get what you want out of them." Marcel's eyes shift back and forth between Klaus. "But she's different. Caroline. I never thought I would see the day that Niklaus Mikealson loved someone more than his family. Or himself. I pity her."
With one tug Klaus removed Marcel's heart and watched the shock flash through his eyes just before all emotion slipped away. After several minutes the ash grey color had completely covered Marcel's complexion and the black veins appeared. Klaus released the grip on Marcel's neck and his lifeless body fell to the ground, as did his heart. Klaus crouched over Marcel's body and cupped his cheek, imagining the small child who never stood a chance with his family. With tender fingers, Klaus closed Marcel's eyes and let the guilt wash over him.
After a last heavy sigh Klaus stepped away from the dead body with both victory and remorse in his heart.
Damon was two centuries old and had seen more dead bodies than most vampires in existence today. It was always the same process with humans once they died and a human body was incapable of changing the decaying process any differently. Human body temperature starts to decrease as the warmth from the blood is gone and the color starts to drain from the skin. The skin turns pale white or ashen just before the body turns into rigor mortis, a tightening of the muscles to form a hard rigid frame but in this case there was no hard, rigid frame or change of color.
Damon stood across the threshold as he watched Elena say her final good byes to Bonnie as her body still lay on the floor of the study. Bonnie's arm lay loosely in Elena's lap as she stroked her hand and muttered her goodbyes. Damon crossed his arms and kept his incredulous stare at the two on the floor. One other vital piece of the human death process was also missing from this equation. Smell. Even after a few hours a vampire's extra senses could pick up the smell of a decomposing body much sooner than the average human. Elena was a vampire just inches away from Bonnie and never gave a hint that she smelled any form of decay. He gave an exaggerated puff before turning around but a sudden gasp cut through the room. Bonnie's once lifeless body sprang forward from the floor.
Author's Note:
A big thank you for returning this chapter, even after the horror that was last chapters ending. I expect the backlash but you guys still gave me good feedback on what I need to make sure I explain in more details for later chapters. There will be a discussion between the two girls about what was said just not right away.
My inspiration for that scene came from Elena's pre/post humanity days. Caroline basically had to beg for an "I'm sorry" and Elena never gave one. For me, that was a big hit to their relationship and I wanted to incorporate that into the story.
Thanks to all the new followers I gained and my long standing reviewers that have been with me from the beginning. It was nice to see some old faces pop back up again. :) Next chapter we get to see Caroline again and we see soon the Hybrid's coming together.
