I watched from the door as Nik poured gasoline over the bodies of the vampires Bekah had killed to save Hayley and myself. He then lit a match and set the pair on fire before walking back to me so we could sleep for the next day.

"I cannot believe you disposed of those vampires without me. You know how I love to set things on fire!" Bekah pouted the next morning looking at the burnt bodies of the dead vampires.

"Was I supposed to leave them in the front yard to rot? Besides, they were my responsibility. They attacked my helpless pregnant wife, child and her little friend!" he reminded her.

"Oh, I am so moved by your new-found sense of family duties towards your wife and her werewolf friend." Bekah said sarcastically as Hayley joined us holding a book with a large M on the cover.

"The werewolf would like to know what the plan is." Hayley said.

"As would the pregnant wife." I added.

"Well, that depends what plan you mean, love- my plan for global domination, or Rebekah's plan to find love in a cruel, cruel world?" Nik asked us. Bekah took a pencil from the desk beside her and threw it in Nik's direction. Nik caught it easily before it could embed itself in his face.

"The plan to rescue Elijah. You know, the good brother? The one who is now in the possession of your mortal enemy after you stabbed him in the back?" Hayley reminded him.

"In the front, if we're being specific." Nik told her demonstrating with the pencil with a smirk on his face.

"No my sister is the one to stab people in the back. Right, Bekah?" I asked her and she threw me a dark look.

"You two said that you would get him back. So is there a plan, or what?" Hayley asked them.

"Okay. Well, firstly, Marcel is not my mortal enemy- he's my friend. Albeit one who is unaware that I'm trying to sabotage his hold over the supernatural community of the French Quarter, but a friend nonetheless. And secondly, I daggered Elijah in order to gain Marcel's trust. If I had known he would place my brother in the hands of a particularly nasty teenage witch, I certainly would have weighed my options a bit differently. And thirdly- Sister, please." Nik said looking to Bekah.

"And thirdly, the plan, as you have demanded, is for Niklaus to simply ask Marcel for Elijah back." Bekah told us and I looked at them in disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me." I told them.

"That's... that's not the whole plan, is it?" Hayley asked hopeful.

"Please! Klaus may be a miserable excuse for a sibling, but there is none more diabolical." Bekah reminded us.

"And that's only the Plan A, love! There's always a Plan B." Nik told us.

"And what's Plan B?" Hayley asked.

"War." Nik said smiling.


Later that day, I walked with Nik down to the cellar where he was having a new vampire stab the vervained vampire to drain him.

"I ordered you to drain him of blood. What's taking so long?" Nik asked him.

"Sorry. I'm not, like, medieval-torture-expert-guy." Josh told him. Nik sighed and grabbed a pitchfork before he impaled the vampire with it. "What did he do to you, anyway?"

"He attacked me." I told him taking the knife from him and moving to the vampire's back where I stabbed him and moved to blade side to side.

"It's not just about what he did. It's about what he's going to do when we're done here, which is whatever I want him to, just like you. For example—" Nik said staring the boy in the eyes to compel him. After removing the pitchfork. "- drive this through his torso." Nik handed the weapon to Josh and Josh immediately obeyed, driving the pitchfork into his torso just as Nik did before, while looking horrified.

"That is crazy. I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway." Josh said.

"It's called mind compulsion. Vampires can compel humans. Originals, like my siblings and I, can also compel vampires, and no one can compel Originals. You following?" Nik asked him and Josh nodded looking frightened. "Good. That is how a brand-new nightwalker such as yourself is here doing my bidding with no one the wiser."

"But I never had my guts drained out of me." Josh said confused.

"Yes. That, young Joshua, is because I got to you before you had even a drop of herbal vervain in your system. You see, it prevents compulsion. Marcel has had his whole crew taking it since I returned to town, and that is why our friend here needs to be bled dry of it, so I can compel him to follow my every command. And with my brother currently in captivity awaiting rescue, we can't afford to be gentle about it, can we?" Nik asked him taking the pitchfork and running it through his abdomen before twisting it roughly. His phone started to go off and he pulled the pitchfork from the vampire and gave it back to Josh.

"Be quick about it. I have an army to build, and one compelled minion does not an army make." Nik said before answering his phone. "Well?" Nik asked the person on the other end. "Oh, do tell!" he said with a smile. "Right-hand-man type, favors silly caps?" he asked pleased. "Well, that means he just unwittingly became the key to our entire plan." He said. "Oh, to be young and in love in a city where witches and vampires are at war. How very tragic." He said before he hung up the phone. "Seems one of the French Quarter Witches is in love with Marcel's right-hand-man."

"Let me guess, you need this right-hand-man out of the way?" I asked with a smirk. "Modern day Romeo and Juliet."


Later in the day, I sat with Bekah and Nik as we spoke with Sophie about the attack on Hayley and myself as well as the witch and vampire.

"Are you out of your mind? No way." Sophie told us incredulously when the Original siblings told him what they wanted her to do.

"It's very simple- We need you to perform a teeny, tiny locator spell to help us find our brother." Bekah told her.

"Witches who practice magic in this town get caught, and then they get killed." Sophie reminded her.

"Yes, about that. It seems you left out a crucial detail when we made our deal-Marcel's secret weapon, the way he knows when a witch is using magic..." Nik told her.

"Girl about yea high, cute as a button, anger issues?" Bekah asked her and Sophie looked at her shocked when she realized who the pair were talking about.

"Davina? Where have you seen her?" Sophie asked.

"I don't know. The little brat erased my memory right after she threw me out a window with her bloody mind." Bekah told her raising her voice at the end.

"Let me cut to the chase. Davina has Elijah. You witches, I assume, want to get Davina away from Marcel. We don't know where she is. Ergo, we need magic." Nik told her.

"Davina would sense it." Sophie said.

"Unless, of course, another witch—- say, a traitor to the cause, Katie for example—- was to perform much more powerful magic at the same time." Bekah suggested.

"Wouldn't that would create a smokescreen, concealing your very small spell from Davina?" I asked sarcastically.

"Katie doesn't deserve to die." Sophie insisted and Nik angrily slammed his hands on the table and stood up to face her.

"Sophie Deveraux! You're in no position to be so principled. You can't win a war without a few strategic losses, no matter how regrettable they may be. How many times have the vampires been one step ahead, known something they shouldn't? Your sister, executed in the public square for practicing magic- who knew she'd be caught? Did she even attempt to flee?" Nik asked her, playing on her weakness for her family.

"...She was caught hiding in a cargo hold of a freighter before it set sail down the Mississippi." She revealed.

"And who, pray tell- of Marcel's valued inner circle- manages his business at the docks?" Nik asked her.

"Katie's boyfriend, Thierry." She sighed. We then made the plan for what would happen that night.


Later, I joined Nik as he sat at a desk pouring over some papers.

"What are you looking for?" I asked him taking a sip of my water.

"I'm going to plant the spell for daylight rings on our dear little witch." He told me.

"That's a good idea." I said before his phone started going off. He answered it and put it on speaker so I could hear it also.

"Little sister!" Nik answered.

"Hey Bekah." I said.

"Hello Nikky. Well, brother, I believe I've made certain Marcel will be properly distracted tonight." Bekah told us.

"Dare I ask?" Nik asked her.

"Let's just say his attention will not be on us. I did my bit. What are you doing to ensure Elijah's safe return?" she asked him.

"Currently, I'm preparing insurance against the tenderhearted." He told us.

"Meaning?" Bekah asked her.

"We need proper motivation for Katie to cast a powerful spell tonight. I'm creating that motivation. Marcel has ordered a rousting of the witches." Nik told us. "And I, in turn, have arranged for things to go tragically wrong."

"By compelling that vampire we've had in our cellar to go after Katie." I said remembering Nik compelling the vampire.

"Marcel may not be concerned with Thierry's romantic entanglements, but there are other crimes which he'll be less inclined to so easily forgive. Killing a vampire, for example. That would be unforgivable. If Katie hopes to save her one true love from Marcel's punishment? Well, a rescue mission like that will require something positively magical. But then... what's worth dying for, if not love?" he asked looking up at me.

"Nothing that I can think of." I said leaning down and kissing him. "I assume I won't be attending this party tonight."

"No. I want you and Hayley to stay here, safe." He told me and I sighed before nodding.

"Okay. I promise I will stay here." I sighed.

"I know you don't like it, love. It's only until we get Marcel to bend his knee to me." He told me and I nodded.

"You're right I don't like it, but I understand why. The baby, Nikolas and I are safe in this house as long as we are trying to get the Quarter under our control. I don't have to like it, but I understand it." I told him and he smiled at me before going to change into his suit and leaving. I went outside to see Hayley in the pool with Nikolas who was having the time of his life in his little floaty. I walked along the edge and looked at the woods around us only to stop when I see a wolf staring at Hayley. "Hayley. We have a visitor." I told the werewolf. I heard her turn to see what I was staring at.

"You're not supposed to be out here." I jumped and turned to see Sabine smiling at me.

"Who are you?" Hayley asked suspiciously.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you two. I'm Sabine. We met. I'm one of Sophie's friends." She told us.

"You're one of the witches." Hayley said.

"I remember you." I said.

"Sophie just asked me to come keep you company while everyone's out." She said before looking at the wolf behind me. "You know, it's drawn to you. The child you're carrying is part vampire, part werewolf. You and Klaus made something special. Twice." She said looking at Nikolas and Hayley.

"I know. Believe me, I know. I just wish I knew what our second child is so I could prepare better for it. When we found out Nikolas was going to be a boy, we were so happy that we got everything we could for our little prince." I said smiling at the happy baby playing with the water in the pool.

"You know, I can do something about that, if you want. I mean, find out if it's a boy or girl." She told me.

"I thought you couldn't do witchy stuff around here." I said suspiciously.

"It's not magic, just an old trick my grandmother taught me. Come on." She said trying to egg me on.

"Hayley get Nikolas out of the pool. It's time for him to go to bed."


Hayley was sitting at a desk in one of the studies, typing on a laptop surrounded by old texts with me sitting across from her reading a book, not that I could really pay attention to it.

"I thought you might like to know, Elijah is returning to us." Nik told us. Hayley smiled and nodded.

"Congratulations. I guess being diabolical has its perks." She said.

"Never let us down yet." I told her.

"You hardly know him, and yet you miss him. What is it about my brother that always inspires such instant admiration?" he asked us. We shared a thoughtful look and I shrugged.

"He was kind to me." She told him.

"He offered to help me when I needed it most." I said. Nik looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to leave.

"Hey, I learned something today. I think we're having a girl." I told him making him pause. I smiled up at him from my seat as he just stood staring at nothing before walking away.


FLASHBACK

I was laying on the kitchen counter as Sabine held a crystal hanging on a chain over my pregnant belly and Hayley holding my hand.

"I think it's a girl." She told me and I shared a smile with Hayley before we started watching the crystal swing in the other direction making Sabine frowns. "No... wait."

"Wait what? Please tell me she's not having another mini-Klaus." Hayley said.

"Not that you wouldn't love another nephew to spoil." I joked with her. We'd bonded so much over the summer that calling her family was almost natural. The crystal suddenly glowed with a bright light, which caused Sabine to drop it. All of a sudden, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she began to chant in a low voice.

"Hoc est infantima malom. Nos omnia perditu el eam."

END FLASHBACK


Hayley was trying to look up what Sabine had told her and I closed the book I was holding.

"I know what she said." I told her.

"What?" she asked.

"This infant is evil. We all lose from her."