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Chapter 7: My Family's Enemies are My Own
Lips pursing, Freya did not feel at ease about Elijah's confiding in Marcel. Yes, he was part of their family. A part of their family who had just as much reason as any of their enemies to resent them and to turn on them in the mere blink of an eye. Freya Mikaelson did not like the feeling of helplessness that settled over her like a heavy shroud.
"What in the hell are you talking about, Elijah?" Marcel's eyes narrowed as he glared at her brother. "What kind of twisted mess has Klaus dragged us into this time?" he demanded, placing his hands on his hips.
"It's not really your concern, Marcel," Freya said, inserting herself into the conversation as if the men had not forgotten her presence. "I'm sure you have your hands full with Davina's disappearance. If you'd like me to do a locator spell to try to find her, then you will have to agree to allow us to deal with this new predicament on our own," staring into Marcel's eyes, Freya waited for him to strain beneath her will. He could deny her but she would deny him her help which could cost him more than he was willing to lose.
Marcel shifted from foot to foot, scowling at Elijah and then looking back at Freya. "Deal. Whatever you need from me, I'll get it."
"Good. I'll need something of Davina's to find her," Freya intoned, feeling more in control.
Hope let out a whimper, drawing attention back to her. The child seemed to understand more about what had happened with the young witch than the adults in her midst but could not communicate her thoughts to them with her words. That was alright. There were other ways of telling a story.
Stefan held the baby close, rocking her slowly while she buried her head into Klaus' shoulder. It felt mind-boggling but Freya lived through odder events. "I'm going to take her inside," Stefan told them.
Freya nodded. "I'll be up soon," she promised the newcomer to their daily family crisis.
Once Stefan had disappeared, Marcel came closer while Elijah moved to close the circle. "Who the hell is that guy?" Marcel demanded. "And where is the hell is Klaus?" he demanded, his gaze intense and Freya could feel Marcel's emotions like waves. His relief, his fear, anger and concern. "Did he do this to himself or do we have a new threat to deal with?"
"We have nothing to concern ourselves with, Marcel," Elijah spoke calmly and decisively, placing a hand on Marcel's shoulder which he shrugged off. "We will handle our new Klaus situation and will offer you any assistance we can in finding Davina."
Marcel gritted his teeth. "Elijah, my damned life is connected to his. If that," he pointed in the direction of the house, "gets himself killed, that's my ass along with Josh's and Klaus' entire sire line."
"Well, then it is a good thing that Mr. Salvatore is also part of Niklaus' sire line, now isn't it?" Elijah quipped with a slight smile causing the side of his mouth to curl up.
Rolling his eyes, Marcel let out an irritated sigh. "Fine. You had better keep an eye on him, or I will. I'll be back with something of Davina's." Striding out of the courtyard, Freya could sense his frustration and knew how dangerous that could be. She also felt the same way.
Elijah titled his head. "That is beginning to develop into a problem."
"Nothing we can't handle, Elijah," Freya retorted, folding her arms over her chest and smirking at her little brother. "I'm going inside to check on Stefan and Hope."
"Good. I am headed to the bayou. Hayley will be in human form tonight and I was hoping to greet her with her good news." Elijah headed out of the courtyard and Freya remembered his mentioning a loophole to the curse that Klaus had placed on the mother of his child.
"Elijah, I'll look into the matter," Freya called after him.
"Thank you, sister," Elijah replied, whirling on his heel to face her but never breaking stride as he walked backwards out the front gate.
Freya steeled herself and headed back into the house. This family could not endure another crisis. Her feet carried her up the stairs, down the hall and into the living quarters.
"And there once was a werewolf who—" Stefan stopped when Freya entered the room. Hope had calmed down and the only sign that she'd been crying were the red circles around her eyes.
"And…" Freya teased, leaning in the doorway. "What did the werewolf do?" she inquired with a smirk directed at Stefan.
"Well, the werewolf had a little princess werewolf that the entire kingdom loved because she was kind and cared for all of her subjects," Stefan told her while Hope stared at him through wide, damp eyes. "Sound good so far?"
"It's got a nice ring to it but needs further development," Freya teased him, walking over and brushing a hand over Hope's head.
"Who's Davina?" Stefan asked, bouncing Hope on his knee.
Freya titled her head, leaning over and inhaling Hope's scent, her eyes closing. The child gave her comfort and calmed her. "Davina is a family friend and a New Orleans witch." She would not tell Stefan any more than he needed to know until she knew she could truly trust him.
"Why would someone take her? I would ask why Klaus would want to take her but we're talking about Klaus and his reasons aren't always what one would call reasonable or logical." Stefan let out a chuckle while Hope continued to watch him. "You got any ideas, kid?" he asked her.
Hope let out a stream of gibberish that did them little good. Then she took Stefan's head between her hands and his mouth opened, his eyes closing and squeezing like whatever was happening was not comfortable.
"Stefan, what's happening?" Freya demanded, watching her baby niece. She knew magic when she saw it and she knew that the child had already begun to practice. This did not come as a shock. However, Hope's practicing magic on Stefan worried Freya. What if the child unknowingly gave away family secrets that were better left kept cloaked, for now.
"Hope, stop!" Freya commanded and the child let go with a whimper, giving Freya an unhappy look.
"He's got her," Stefan said, letting out a deep breath and opening his eyes.
"Who?" Freya felt confused. "Davina?"
"I don't know. Does she have dark hair and one hell of a glare when she's pissed off?" Stefan questioned Freya.
Freya nodded. "That very well could be her."
"Tell me about the man you saw," Freya demanded, grabbing a notebook that someone, probably Elijah, had laid aside with a pen atop. "Tell me as much as possible."
Stefan looked thoughtful. "Young. Vampire. Tall, dark hair, blue eyes. Nothing about him stood out. I'd say he was a lackey. Then again, it's best not to assume." Frowning, Stefan sighed. "Sorry. I wish I could be more helpful."
"You can," Freya said, reaching out and taking Stefan's borrowed face between her hands, Freya concentrated, looking deeply into Klaus' familiar eyes that showed Stefan's feelings. Closing her own eyes, Freya swallowed as she probed the visions that Hope had just given Stefan.
Yes, Davina stood, chained to a wall, looking irritated but unharmed, yet. Kol would be furious. Perhaps Freya should have kept a watch over her brother's girl but she had so many problems associated with the rest of the family.
Davina watched as the man talked rapidly on a phone, passing mere feet from her, glancing at her from time to time. His eyes bore no emotion. Whoever left Davina in the care of this vampire was either arrogant enough to believe that the emotionless vamp would not tear the girl apart or they did not intend for her to outlive her usefulness, whatever that might be.
"Yes, sir," the vampire said before hanging up. For once, Freya found it regrettable that she did not share her brother's enhanced hearing. It would be useful in a case like this. The vampire moved toward Davina with a menacing look.
To Davina's credit, she did not flinch even in the face of a certain death sentence. "Tell me what I asked for," the vampire snarled, his fangs appearing and he leaned into Davina, his body pressing her into the wall behind her. "Or I will do things to you that you've only heard about."
Davina laughed in the vamp's face and Freya smiled. "You think you scare me. I've faced the likes of Klaus Mikaelson and I beat him. You're nothing. You're just some paid vamp-for-hire whose job is to force information out of me. Well, I'm not going to help you hurt the Mikaelsons."
"From the way I hear it, you've been doing nothing but trying to hurt the Mikaelsons, drawing a giant target on Klaus' back. Take him down and the others will fall like a stack of dominos. Hell, I hear Kol Mikaelson came back as a warlock and didn't last a year. Got himself killed by a hex placed on him by his own brother. Ask me, being a vampire is so much better. Hex might make you go crazy but that's just half the fun." The vampire grinned at Davina, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at him. "Oh, wait, you were Kol's girl, weren't you? Pity. Really. He should have killed you."
Davina spat in the vampire's face who stepped back and wiped his face with the back of his hand. "You're going to pay for that," he snarled when someone came into the room and suddenly the vision ended.
"No!" Freya cried, probing Stefan's mind for anything else but came up with nothing. "Damn it," she hissed, stepping back and her fingernails bit into her hands, blood beginning to drop onto the floor as she gritted her teeth together.
Hope gave Freya a long look and Freya tried to calm herself. She wanted to scream, to throw something, to lash out at someone. Her emotions were spinning further and further out of control. Someone had come for her family. Again. She was trying so hard to repair the damage that her brothers had done to each other and now someone had come to harm them. Powerless. No, she would not be. She would find this new enemy and stop them before they were at their gates. Nip the bud before it bloomed. She must find Davina Claire before her captor took whatever information she had to be wielded against them.
A hand on her arm startled Freya out of her dark thoughts. "How can I help?" Stefan asked. Freya felt startled by the look in her brother's eyes. She thought she'd never seen Klaus be this open with another being. Vulnerable. No, this was Stefan's emotions showing through. His aura. Soft and lighter but weighed down with a burden of guilt and self-reprimand.
"You can help me look for a cure for Hayley while we await Marcel's arrival." Freya turned away from Stefan. She did not like how openly he offered his emotions to her. It made her want to offer herself in return but after a thousand years of learning to never allow someone else in if she did not want to suffer the cruelest of heartache; she did not know if she was capable of allowing him in. No matter. He was simply a guest who would return home to his other life, and she would continue on, attempting to heal her broken home.
"Okay." Stefan waited while Freya walked out of the room. She sensed, rather than heard, him following her into Elijah's study which he left unlocked.
Freya searched through the titles on his shelf until she found the book that Elijah had been studying when she came to tell him about the Klaus and Stefan switch-up mess. "Here it is," she said, pulling out the book and showing it to Stefan.
"Your mother's?" Stefan inquired, studying the old book.
"One of them. How did you know?" Freya asked him, idly flipping through the tome.
"I might have seen one of them or something almost as old at some point. Klaus tended to leave information lying around when he didn't think they could be used against him." Stefan peered over her shoulder and Hope let out a loud sound, bouncing on his hip and pointing.
"Yes, Hope. This is how Elijah said we can get your mother home to you," Freya told the baby who watched knowingly.
"Are you sure this will work? What if the spell backfires and makes things worse for Hayley and her pack?" Stefan looked concerned.
"You worry for someone you don't know that well?" Freya's eyebrows rose. She felt amused.
Stefan shrugged. "I know that Hayley isn't an angel but knowing Klaus, he did something and she reacted and then he had her cursed. I've been manipulated by Klaus' power-plays, so I can sympathize."
Freya smiled. "That sounds like my brother. He is plagued by a constant paranoia that drives everyone who would care for him from his side. I hate to think of what kind of schemes he is embroiled with in your body."
"I shudder to think," Stefan retorted with a laugh.
"Freya!" Marcel's shout caused the lighthearted moment to dissipate.
"And the fun never ends around here," Stefan commented as they headed back to the courtyard to find Marcel pacing.
Freya understood his anger and impatience but it would not help her find Davina. "I brought you some of her hair," Marcel said, holding up a hair brush. Josh got it for me, met me half-way to her place. He's just as worried about her.
Freya didn't know Josh that well, however, she did not feel any hard will toward the baby vampire. From what she knew of Josh and Davina's relationship, she felt a bit jealous considering her general lack of friends. Yes, she had a coven, more or less, although that was questionable with the death of Josephine LaRue. With Davina as the Regent, anything that felt certain before had become less so and with Davina's declaring war between the witches and her family, she felt less than welcome amongst her own kind.
"Thank you. That will be useful," Freya said, taking the brush. She walked back into the house, knowing that Marcel would follow her with Stefan somewhere close by. Stopping inside the living quarters, Freya walked over to a candle lighting it up and plucked Davina's long, dark hair from the teeth of the brush, ignoring the familiar, acrid stench of human hair burning.
Knowing that a basic locator spell would not do the trick, Freya decided to look further into the vastness for Davina, using her essence to find her. Closing her eyes, she began to chant, seeing the candle's flame in her mind's eye rise while she placed her hands to her sides, allowing the magic to pour through her and envelop her. "Where is she?" she demanded anything that could hear her. And like a spirit reached out to her, Freya felt her mind beginning to focus on a place which solidified agonizingly slowly.
Freya's head snapped forward and she inhaled deeply as she came to. Marcel stood to her left, his hands on his hips. "Did you find her?" he demanded.
"Yes. She's in an old warehouse. In the ninth ward. There's a red wall on one side. A giant arrow above. The arrow's pointing downward, like it used to be part of a sign or something." Freya looked to Marcel who knew much more about the city than she did.
Marcel's head bobbed and he pulled out his phone. "Good. Thanks, Freya." He moved to leave when Freya stopped him.
"Wait! We're coming with you," Freya called after Marcel.
"Really? You're planning on bringing a baby into a lethal fight?" Marcel snapped, eyeing Hope and then giving Freya a look that conveyed just which level of crazy he estimated her to have fallen victim to.
"No. Stefan can look after Hope. Yes, Stefan?" Freya looked to Stefan. "Call Cami. I'm sure she'd love to be of assistance."
"Cami? You've got her in this mess, too?" Marcel snapped, not bothering to look up from his phone.
"No, of course not. She knows nothing," Freya retorted, walking alongside the former self-titled king.
"Yeah. And she's going to love it when she finds out. Maybe I should send Josh to help Stefan. You know Cami's bound to figure it out if they're alone together for more than two minutes." Marcel pocketed his phone to give Freya a long look.
Nodding, Freya frowned. "Yes, I'm afraid there are far too many people who know of my brother's mysterious absence already."
"Let me guess, you're counting me on the: those who shouldn't know list. Right?" Marcel quipped with an easy smile that did not mask his resentment to Freya.
"Marcel, it is not personal," Freya began when the vampire held up a hand.
"With your family, it never is, until it is." Marcel shook his head, his distaste visible.
Freya stopped at the gate, turning to find Stefan right behind her. "Keep her safe for us, will you?" She could feel Stefan's protectiveness of Hope as he held the baby close. It felt more like Klaus' remnants of Klaus' aura than Stefan's which should help to keep Hope safe. Any paternal feelings were better than none.
"I'll protect her with my life. Klaus' life," Stefan amended and Marcel rolled his eyes, glowering at the street outside. "You should be careful, too."
"Thank you for your concern, Stefan," Freya replied with a smile before she strode off with Marcel. She just hoped that they got to Davina before Davina broke. The girl had a strong will but there is only so much pressure one can endure before one collapses under the weight of forces beyond our control.
"She had better be okay," Marcel muttered under his breath.
Freya nodded. She wished the same. For the sake of her family and for the girl herself. Most especially she hoped that Davina remained safe for Kol's return. Their brother would be returned to them and Finn. They would be whole and God help anyone who stood in her way.
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Jessica