Chapter 30

New Orleans, 1821

"Elijah!" Niklaus shouted. "Elijah!"

Elijah raised his head; he and Marcellus were in the middle of a piano lesson.

"Wait here," he said to the boy as he stood up. It wasn't difficult to tell that Niklaus was mad and there was no need for Marcellus to see or hear that. Elijah walked quickly out of the living room and ran into his brother.

"Where is he?" Niklaus snarled.

Elijah raised his eyebrows.

"Who?"

"You know who! Kol!"

"What?"

"Don't play games with me!" Niklaus shouted. "He's not in the coffin, where is he?!"

"I have no idea," Elijah replied.

Niklaus glared at him furiously.

"Well, someone has undaggered him. Are you saying that it wasn't you?"

"No, it wasn't me," Elijah replied coolly. "Do you know how long he has been missing?"

"No," Niklaus snapped tensely. "I haven't opened his coffin in years."

"Hmm. And why did you open it now?"

Niklaus glared at him and crossed his arms.

"If you must know, I wanted some fun company for change."

Elijah didn't comment on that, he had more important things on his mind right now.

"We need to talk to Rebekah..."

"It wasn't her," Niklaus cut in. "I already asked."

"I see. You do realize there is one more option."

"No," Niklaus murmured. "It wasn't Aurora."

"How can you be sure? You know how bad her temper is..."

"It wasn't her," Niklaus repeated angrily. "She's not that stupid. She might stab me or shoot me when we fight, but she knows better than to cross certain lines."

"Yes, but she has been away for almost six months."

"That's nothing new," Niklaus huffed. "She'll come back when she's ready."

Elijah rolled his eyes.

"You two have a very strange relationship."

Niklaus shrugged.

"We like to torment each other, but I have become accustomed to her over the centuries."

"How nice, but I believe we have other things to worry about right now. If Aurora didn't undagger Kol, who did? And when?"

Niklaus pressed his lips together.

"That's a good question. We need to find him."

"He could be anywhere," Elijah sighed. "Who knows how many years he has been out."

Niklaus pressed his lips together.

"No, it can't be years, we would have heard something. Or do you really believe that he would have suddenly learned how to keep low profile?"

Elijah sighed and shook his head. No, that didn't sound like Kol at all. After all the chaos he had caused in Spain, Elijah doubted that Kol would simply be able to go incognito. That had never been his style. No, Kol had always done whatever he had wanted, even when his actions had put his whole family in danger.

"Who could have undaggered him?" Elijah stated after a moment of silence.

"I don't know," Niklaus replied tensely. "But I promise you I'll find out."


Meanwhile in England

"Checkmate," Lucien stated grinning.

Kol looked up and frowned.

"You cheated," he snorted.

"Oh please, I don't have to cheat, I'm simply better than you."

Kol's eyes narrowed.

"Is that so?"

Lucien shrugged.

"What can I say, modesty has never been one of my virtues."

"Neither has intelligence," Kol snorted.

"Hmm, and yet I won. That's not very flattering to you, is it?"

"Let's play again then. I'll prove that you cheated."

"Fine," Lucien huffed. "Let's play."

"Fine."

Kol paused and emptied his glass. He couldn't believe that he was actually sitting here, playing chess with Lucien. If this would be any other night, they would be in the tavern already, painting the town red. Not tonight though. Tonight, Fay would finally return after spending a month with Tristan. Kol still hated this arrangement Lucien and Tristan had, but he had been forced to accept it.

"What time is it?" he asked carelessly.

"Almost seven," Lucien replied.

"Hmm."

They started a new game without saying a word, they still had at least an hour to kill. As strange as it was, Kol didn't find Lucien's company unpleasant. Perhaps he would have even called them friends. That truly was strange, but they did have a lot in common and without Lucien and Tristan, he would likely still be in a coffin.

Daggered by his own brothers. Never again. He had something better now, he didn't need anything from his siblings. They could keep their always and forever. He would eventually get back at Nik and Elijah though. There was no better way to do that than reveal Rebekah and Aurora's betrayal. Just the thought made him smile. That should be very interesting. All in good time though, he had other things to do at the moment. Fortunately, he was in no hurry, he had all the time in the world.