I sat at one end of a dinner table Nik had set up in the courtyard of our new home to celebrate his return to leadership over New Orleans and his repossession of the Abbatoir compound from Marcel. The vampire army, including Marcel and his closest friends were seated around the table with Nik and I on each end. Nik called for everyone's attention to give a speech by tapping his glass with his fork.

"Let us begin with a toast to our shared gift: immortality. After a thousand years, one might expect life to be less keenly felt, for its beauties and its sorrows do diminish with time. But, as vampires, we feel more deeply than humans could possibly imagine." Nik said before gesturing to a group of waiters and waitresses to have join us at the table, one for each guest. "Insatiable need, exquisite pain..." the servants slit their wrists with knives, filling the cups with blood for the vampires. "Our victories, and our defeats." Nik looked to Marcel who looked down and Nik raised his glass in a toast to us. "...To my city, my home again. May the blood never cease to flow..."

"...and the party never end!" Marcel said raising his glass before looking over at another vampire.

"To New Orleans." The vampire said raising his glass.

"To New Orleans!" Nik repeated.

"New Orleans." Everyone else said taking a drink.

"I understand that some of you may have questions regarding the recent change in leadership, and I invited you here tonight to assure you that you are not defeated. No, my intentions moving forward are to celebrate what we have. What Marcel, in fact, took and built for this true community of vampires." Nik told them.

"What about her, her son, and her little friend?" the vampire from before said pointing at me. "The wolves and the Hybrid bitch."

"Had you'd let me finish, Diego, you would know that there is, of course, one further matter I would like to address." Nik said walking over to me. "As many of you know, this girl and I are expecting our second child. Consequently, I trust you will all pay her the appropriate respect. However, I understand that some of you are concerned by this vicious rumor that I intend to use the blood of our children to create hybrids. I assure youI do not." We looked around and saw them all sharing a look. "It appears I will have to earn your trust. Very well. We'll eliminate the root of your anxiety. You see, how I can I sire any hybrids if there are no more werewolves alive in the Bayou to turn?" he asked and I gave him a mildly shocked look.

"What? Nik, no!" I whispered to him knowing that those around us could hear.

"So- eat, drink, and be merry. And, tomorrow, I suggest you have yourselves a little wolf hunt. Go ahead, have fun. Kill them all!" Nik said ignoring me while smirking at the group.


The next day Cami was in the compound to yell at Nik some more while pretending to write his memoirs and the vampires were gathering for the werewolf hunt. I shook my head and walked down the stairs towards the side door of the compound to go see the city as Nikolas was sleeping under Hayley's watchful eye. I jumped and sighed when I saw Diego in front of me all of a sudden.

"Going somewhere?" he asked me. Suddenly, Elijah appeared and broke his neck by throwing him into the wall

"What the hell is going on?" Hayley asked coming downstairs only to pause when she saw Elijah. "Elijah, you shouldn't be here. Klaus has his guys watching her."

"I wouldn't worry about them." He told her and after a moment two other vampires who were hiding around the corner were kicked into view by Bekah. "Come, we mustn't linger. We'll get you some place safe."

"No, you don't have to worry about me, us. We're fine. Nicole's been deemed under protection by the almighty Klaus and by extension me. It's the werewolves who need help. He ordered a wolf hunt as some jacked-up peace offering to Marcel's crew. You have to help them." Hayley begged him.

"Out in the Bayou? Do we look like a bloody vampire-rescue-squad? I think you should be grateful we came to save you!" Bekah told her.

"Listen. Rebekah. All my life, I've wanted to know who my real family was, and just as I find out that they're out there in the Bayou, Klaus orders them killed. You wanna help me? Help my people. Please." Hayley begged once more.

"We can't just leave them unprotected." I said agreeing with Hayley. "If the wolves are ever going to rejoin the French Quarter they need to feel like they are going to be welcome. With Nik's order for a wolf hunt, any survivors will hunt us down."


Later that day I traveled with Nik and Marcel to the church to collect Davina from the attic and bring her home. Nik waited for a while as Marcel tried to convince Davina to come with us before he walked into her room. I sighed and followed him.

"Plus, there's excellent light in the afternoon." Nik told her continuing the conversation only he could hear them having. I guess werewolf hearing wasn't as good as vampire. Nik walked up to her paintings and I took a closer look at them. They were beautiful. "I see you're an artist. Wonderful! I look forward to witnessing your many talents!"

"Was this his idea?" Davina asked Marcel.

"Davina, please. I understand you're devoted to Marcel, but Marcel is devoted to me. I assume you'll want what's best for all of us." Nik said before walking back to Marcel. "We have a meeting to attend downstairs." Marcel nodded and Nik left.

"I'll get someone to pick up your things. We'll get you settled in right. Trust me." He told Davina.

"It really is safer for you at the compound. We can protect you from the witches there a lot easier than we can here." I said offering her a kind smile before joining the boys downstairs. Downstairs, Father Kieran, Cami's uncle I'd learned shortly before we left the compound, had gathered the important men in the city, the Human Faction, in the front pews of the church. He lifted his head and saw Nik, Marcel, and I arrived and greeted us as he ushered us to the rest of the members.

"Klaus, Marcel, Nicole, thank you for coming. We are aware of the change in the leadership in your community, and we thought it was time to make the appropriate introductions." Father Kieran said and two men stood up to introduce themselves.

"We wanna be sure you understand how things work around here." The Mayor said and I shook my head at his words.

"Is that so?" Nik asked amused and the Mayor nodded confidently.

"What the Mayor means is that we just want some insurance that this new development isn't going to endanger our city or its inhabitants." Father Kieran tried helping.

"Look, you freaks do your thing, and we'll look the other way." The Sheriff told us and Nik looked at Marcel incredulously. "As long as our pockets stay full, we won't have a problem." Father Kieran grew more anxious, and, fearing a violent confrontation, tried to backtrack and help the two humans screwing things up.

"More importantly, there are rules. No feeding on the locals. Don't bring any unwanted attention to the city. History has proven that we can co-exist peacefully. However if you cross the line..." the Sheriff interrupted Father Kieran and I shook my head at him.

"You answer to us." The Sheriff told Nik and I making Nik laugh loudly and me scoff.

"Okay... I'm sorry, let me get this straight- I'm to play supplicant to this pompous ass and his ridiculous group of petty thieves?" Nik sighed dramatically, shaking his head and walking towards the two humans. "Here are my terms: You will take whatever scraps I see fit to leave you, and you will be grateful. If that doesn't suit you, I may decide you've outlived your usefulness." The Sheriff looked angry after Nik as he walked down the aisle to take his leave. Marcel and I shared an annoyed look before following him. I understood why Nik was amused with the humans, but he should have handled it better. I'd talk to him about it later.


Marcel and I were sitting in a bar room and Nik joined us with a bottle of bourbon and a glass of water in hand.

"I think it was far more gracious than they deserved." Nik said pouring themselves a drink as Marcel glared at him. I took the water from him and sipped on it. "You're disappointed by my lack of diplomacy. You out of all people should need no reminder of the human capacity for cruelty." Marcel remained quiet and I sighed.

"The Human Faction is amusing yes, Nik. But sometimes diplomacy goes a lot farther than cruelty." I told him. Nik's phone began to buz and he rose from his chair to answer it.

"Hello?" he answered. "Have you?" Nik asked the person on the other line amused. Suddenly, an explosion was heard from outside and large amounts of automatic gunfire pierced through the walls and windows of the compound, scattering broken glass all over the bar room. Some Daywalkers were hurt by the gunfire, and many of the Nightwalkers went up in flames when they were hit by the sunlight. Nik covered me as Marcel hurried to save one of the burning vampires from exposure, but both himself and Nik were hit by machine gun shots and Nik pushed me down towards the ground behind the bar. Marcel collapsed and fell to the floor in pain as Nik covered him with his body, clearly furious. Once the attack on the bar room was over it was completely empty with the exception of Nik, Marcel and myself. I stood up my hand on my pregnant belly thinking of what could have happened. The room that had once been a safe haven for us was now Nightwalkers had led to the downfall of a few and the furniture was disarranged.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Marcel said furiously as he flipped a table before angrily pointing at Nik. "This is on you! Now that you're in charge, these are your guys laying dead. Your guys. You're gonna run this city, that better mean something to you, otherwise no one worth a damn is gonna follow you. No one!" Marcel glared at him but instead of being angry at him, Nik merely smiled as Marcel turned away from him.

"I was beginning to worry about you. I don't think I could've taken any more of this differential nonsense. I mean, clearly I underestimated the faction. That won't happen again. But, tell me- now that we've arrived to this point, now that they have come into our home, visited this upon our people... How would you counsel me to respond?" Nik asked him.

"Let's go kill them all." Marcel said determinedly.

"About time we all agree on something." I said with a smile.

"Who says you're going?" Nik asked me.

"I do." I told him.

"I agree with Klaus. You should stay here. You're pregnant and should be relaxing." Marcel told me and I smirked at them.

"The one time you two agree with each, other than killing a bunch of old assholes, is about me staying inside these walls?" I asked them giving them both a look. "Nik you know me a lot better than to think I'll listen. Marcel, you're going to get to know me a lot better than that. I'm going to check on Nikolas and then we can go." I turned away from them and went back to my son's room only to stop when I saw Davina tip-toe into the garage.

"It's okay. You can trust Marcel. And if Klaus tries to hurt you- I'll hurt him." I heard Davina say and I walked in to see her talking to Josh.

"I'm sure if you could actually stop Nik, you would've done it already." I told her and they both turned to me.

"You're Nicole. Klaus' wife." Davina said and I nodded.

"I am. And you are the all-powerful superwitch, Davina. And let's not forget Josh, newbie vampire way out of his element, voted "Most Likely to Die Next."" I said looking at the two of them.

"Fantastic." Josh said nodding nervously.

"Hey, I can talk to Nik and convince him to let you off the hook. Maybe there's a world where we can all look out for each other?" I offered them. "We all have things we want, and we will need help getting them."

"What do you want?" Davina asked me.

"My children to grow up happy in a home filled with family and to be protected." I told her. "But I'll need help making it happen." I then walked away from them and to Nikolas' room.

"Where have you guys been?" Hayley asked me when I walked in.

"Taking care of the humans who think they are in charge." I told her looking down at Nikolas playing and talking with his toys happily. "They attacked us today. Killed some Nightwalkers. Nik Marcel and I are going to handle the final details of the new rules. How was he today?"

"He's happy to have everyone home and playing with him." She told me smiling. "Thank you, by the way."

"For what?" I asked her confused.

"For helping me convince Elijah and Rebekah to help my family." She said and I turned to her.

"It wasn't just for you." I told her. "I want my children safe and if the wolves hunt us down for Nik's order then they aren't safe. Also I became a werewolf here. I have no pack except Nik and my children, but the wolves here are protecting me for some reason. Maybe it's only because I've been pregnant with two miracle children now, I don't know. I'm a New Orleans Werewolf, like you, so the least I can do is protect your pack." I said before turning and heading out of the room.

"You have a pack." She called to me and I turned to look at her. "My pack is your pack. You might not have the crescent moon birthmark, but you're pack." I smiled at her words and nodded my thanks to her before meeting up with Nik and Marcel.


We initiated a plan and had the Human Faction would meet up and we would take them by surprise. We hid at the restaurant where the human faction was holding the meeting.

"Why wasn't I consulted on this?" Father Kieran asked when he walked into the restaurant.

"You've been gone for over eight months, Kieran. We got used to doing things on our own." The Mayor told him.

"This Klaus Mikaelson, I don't care who he is or what the rumors say. He needed to be taught a lesson." The Sheriff said.

"You are gonna start a war!" Father Kieran shouted angrily.

"I'd like to see them try." The Sheriff scoffed patronizingly. "Oh, and Kieran, this is the last time you call a meeting. Next time you wanna criticize our leadership, send a damn email." Father Kieran looked around at them confused.

"I thought you called this meeting...?"

"The hell we did." The Sheriff told him and that was when Nik and I entered the room and approached the table.

"Actually, I called it. It appears I made a grave error during our earlier conference. My friend Marcel offered me wise counsel, and I failed to heed it." Nik said smirking.

"I'm glad to hear you've learned your lesson." The Sheriff said sharing Nik's smirk.

"Oh, I won't be making that mistake again." Nik said. "Marcel!" Marcel used his vamp-speed to get to the Sheriff from the back and stabbed him in the neck before grinning content. We watched as the sheriff bled and the rest of the restaurant patrons screamed as Nik approached him, smiling. "Shall we...?"

"After you!" Marcel said and the two of them killed everyone in the room except Father Kieran.

"There he is. Our lone survivor. Such a sad day for our city." Nik said walking to him from the body of a dead woman. Nik patted the man's shoulder and looked at the carnage around the room. "Some of its best and brightest killed in a tragic boating accident on the Mississippi. Rather nasty explosion, I heard." Nik then looked into Father Kieran's eyes. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Okay, hold up. I've known Kieran for a long time. He's smart and he's fair. I think he can do us more good alive than dead." Marcel told him.

"This would be one of those times to listen to Marcel, Nik." I told him.

"Very well. Use this reprieve to remake your human faction." Nik said.

"And how do you expect me to remake the Mayor?" Father Kieran asked overwhelmed with the new responsibility.

"Well, surely there's a deputy Mayor? Choose new leaders. Then we'll re-open negotiations." Nik said before we took our leave.


The three of us walked back to the compound after they cleaned up a bit and Nik pulled out a flask.

"To our united front! This act of yours, the imitation of friendship. Don't get me wrong, you played the part well enough- I should know, having played it myself. There was a time when the affinity between us was quite real." Nik reminded Marcel.

"Sure. And then you got it in your head to take what I created. When I picked up that coin, I swore loyalty, Klaus, not friendship. I'm holding up my end. The other one has to be earned." Marcel told him.

"Fair enough. Then, you should probably know the whole story. My decision was not entirely my own. If I didn't agree to usurp your power, the witches swore to kill my wife and children. I will not do to my family what was done to me. To us." Nik said drinking deeply from his flask.

"All this- the spying, the manipulation- that's just something you were forced into. Is that it? And what now? You feel kinda bad... "Hey buddy, it's nothing personal." Is that it?" Marcel asked not believing him.

"I admit, I was jealous. I saw the empire you had created on your own, without me. I saw it, and I wanted it." Nik told him.

"You're wrong, you know. I didn't do it on my own. I stood in the shadow of my father my entire human life, and I never would've gotten out from under it, if not for you. You're the one who taught me that a man can't be defined by anyone but himself." Marcel paused awkwardly before he continued. "So, what now?"

"This community that you've built- you have their respect. Their love. Nicole and I could rule them, but we cannot win them, not without you. So, rule with us. Side by side as equals. Friends. Family." Nik offered Marcel the flask and after a moment, Marcel took it and drank from it. Nik smiled cheerfully at him before the three of us continued walking down the street towards home.


I walked upstairs once I'd gotten home and saw Davina finally unpacking her things in her new bedroom, but her unpacking looked more like searching.

"What are you looking for?" I asked her curiously.

"My violin. It must be left in the attic." Davina told me.

"Do you want me to go with you to get it?" I asked her.

"I can't. It's not safe for me out there." She told me and I offered her a kind smile.

"And here I was under the impression everyone was afraid of you." I said.

"The witches are after me." She told me.

"Sophie told us that. But all the elders are dead so surely you can walk around whenever you want to." I said.

"Not all of them are. Agnes is still alive." She said and I looked at her confused.

"I know her, she tried to kill me, too. The thing is, she's dead. I killed her myself." I told her and Davina shook her head in disbelief.

"But.. Agnes was the last living Elder. If she's dead, then I'm safe. Marcel would've told me." She insisted.

"Maybe he didn't wanna lose his secret weapon against the witches?" I said offering the bad scenario.

"You're lying." Davina told me suspiciously.

"Why would I lie to you?" I asked sighing.

"Because you want something from me. Everyone does." She told me and I nodded.

"Do I want something from you? Yeah, Davina, actually, I do. Thanks to your friend Marcel, most of my friend's family is cursed. They're stuck in their wolf form, except on a full moon. Now, I've hung around enough witches to know that every curse has a loophole. And, well, you're the strongest witch I've ever met. But I wouldn't lie to you to get what I want. I'd ask you for your help. I guess that's the difference between Marcel and me." I said before walking away from her.