I sat in the living room downstairs with Elijah, Nik, and Bekah discussing the current predicament looking over Davina's sketches.
"The Italians call them strega. The Yoruba of West Africa call them aje, meaning mother. Where my mother was from, they called them häxa, and here we call them witch. Over the centuries, vampires have fought them and fought beside them, bedded them and burned them. Whether adversary or ally, they have been a force to be reckoned with. Their ancestral magic anchors this city. There's never been one all-powerful witch until Davina." Elijah said reading a book about witches.
"Who is now tucked in safe and sound down the hall under my protection. Your Celeste was quite beautiful and a portent of evil, according to our volatile artist in residence." Nik said.
"Yes. Perhaps Davina's mistaken what she calls evil for power. Celeste was certainly very powerful in her day, but she's been dead for over two hundred years. I don't understand. Why all these sketches now?" Elijah asked looking at them with me.
"Why does any witch do anything?" Nik asked with a smirk on his face.
"To be a royal pain in the ass or to make your life miserable." I told him offering him a bitter smile. "Take your pick."
"Nicole, are you alright?" Bekah asked me. "I noticed you didn't leave your room this morning."
"Nik and I came to an understanding last night. Don't worry, Bekah, I'll be fine." I told her with a smile before looking back at Davina's art again. We all sat in silence for a moment before Nik smirked.
"Well, that's going well." He said and I gave him a confused look.
"If you were trying to win the girl's trust, perhaps poisoning her one true love was not the most splendid idea." Elijah told him.
"Oh. Are there any more inopportune deaths you'd like to wave in my face?" Nik asked him.
"Give me a month. I'll get you list." Elijah said sarcastically and I held back my laughter.
"Young, old, dead, or alive, witches are a pain in the ass." Nik said. I quickly left the room and went upstairs only to hear coughing and Marcel speaking. I looked at the door and saw it was Davina's and quickly went inside to see her coughing up dirt. I quickly went to her side and moved her hair out of her face and rubbed her back trying to offer some form of comfort.
"What's with all the racket?" Nik asked storming inside the room. I gave him a concerned and scared look as he stared at Davina and myself "Bloody hell." Soon the whole house began to shake violently, as though an earthquake was storming through the city. Davina stopped coughing up dirt and I quickly moved to the balcony overlooking the courtyard with Nik to see Bekah looking around in confusion.
"What the hell is going on?" Bekah asked.
"Davina." Nik told her.
A while later, I was in the living room helping clean some of the mess Davina's earthquake had made.
"This is madness. How can a 16-year-old girl shake the entire French quarter?" Nik asked annoyed.
"I've seen her rock the church, but I've never seen anything like this." Marcel told him.
"How did you control her when she was in the attic?" Nik asked him and AI rolled my eyes at him.
"I didn't have to. But then, I never killed her boyfriend." Marcel told him.
"Yes, yes. We've been over this part already. The point is in her present state she's useless as a tool against the witches." Nik said.
"She's not a tool." Marcel told him angrily.
"Are you two blind?" I asked them. "Something's wrong with her! Her magic is killing her and you two are arguing about her being less than a person or controlling her?"
"She has too much power that she cannot control. That much we already knew. But why is it manifesting itself in such an aggressive manner?" Elijah asked no one in particular before a look suddenly crossed his face. He quickly started out of the room as we watched on confused.
"Where are you going?" Nik asked him.
"This is witch business. Let's ask a witch." Elijah said before leaving.
Elijah soon returned with Sophie to the compound the family gathered to listen to what she had to say.
"So you have stolen the remains of the very person that Davina's been drawing for months. Would you care to explain this startling coincidence?" Elijah asked her.
"I can't. I didn't even know who Celeste Dubois was until I—" Sophie started saying until the house started shaking again, like it had earlier. Sophie looked alarmed, but the rest of them were merely irritated. I glanced upstairs towards where Davina was. "Was that Davina?"
"Charming little habit she's developed." Nik told her.
"And the earthquake I felt today?" Sophie asked.
"Also Davina." I said.
"And, she's taken to vomiting dirt." Bekah said.
"Oh. We have a huge problem. I thought that we had more time, but we need to complete the Harvest now." Sophie said panicking.
"Said the desperate witch, conveniently." Nik said.
"I'm serious! That earthquake you just felt is a preview of the disaster movie that is about to hit us." Sophie told us.
"Why should we believe you?" Elijah asked her.
"You've met Davina, you know her story. For months now, she's been holding all the power of the three girls sacrificed in the Harvest ritual. A force that was meant to flow through her and back into the earth. One person was never meant to hold that much power. It's tearing her apart, and it will take us down with it." Sophie told us.
"What will happen?" I asked her.
"Davina will cycle through four stages that represent the four elements that bound together the Harvest." Sophie started. "Earth stage comes first. And each stage is more intense than the last. After Earth comes wind, and she will blow everything in this place sky high. Then after the wind is water. Rain, flood. The last stage is fire, and since it's the last it will be the worst. This city has burnt before and it will again. The only way to stop what's happening is to complete the Harvest." She told us and I shook my head.
"You mean to murder an innocent child." I said.
"She'll be resurrected." She insisted.
"And how do we know you aren't lying to us again?" I asked her. "How do we know you aren't just saying this to get your magic back?"
"The Harvest was working." She insisted again. "I saw it working." I just shook my head as Bekah and Nik set out to warn the Human Faction and Davina of what was to come.
"You've convinced my siblings. You have yet to convince us." Elijah told Sophie as soon as Marcel joined the three of us.
"We don't have time to waste. The first sign's already come and gone." Sophie warned.
"So fix her!" Marcel ordered.
"She can't be fixed." Sophie insisted.
"So what do you expect us to do?" I asked her.
"The more upset she gets, the faster she deteriorates." Sophie told us. "The calmer she is the longer she lives, but it is too late. She can't be saved. This will not stop at the earth sign, and if you wait it out, you immortals will be the only ones left to argue about it." Suddenly a strong wind burst the compound's windows open. After a moment, the wind stopped. "Convinced now?"
Sometime later, Elijah, Nik, Marcel and I were congregated downstairs and Elijah paced anxiously.
"We sedated her too heavily." Elijah told us.
"Well, if this is her sedated, I'd hate to see her otherwise. We all agreed that Davina must be sacrificed. There's no need to let her blow the roof off our heads in the meantime." Nik told him.
"No way! You're not touching her!" Marcel said before punching Nik angrily making me gasp.
"Okay, I'll let you have that one." Nik told him rubbing his face.
"Marcel, no one wishes to see Davina come to harm less than I, but there is no scenario here in which we simply wait this out. She's going to die." Elijah told Marcel and I closed my eyes.
"According to Sophie, the witch who screwed over everybody here. Who hexed your wife." Marcel said to Nik who spared me a glance. I looked at him looking away from him.
"The Harvest was working before it was stopped. If a nonbeliever like Sophie Deveraux can come to have faith that these girls will be resurrected, then I, also, am a believer." Elijah said breaking up the silence.
"I saved Davina from the Harvest, and now you want me to just hand her over?" Marcel asked us.
"Do you think that I'm happy about this? If the witches complete the Harvest, not only do they regain their power, we lose our weapon against them." Nik said.
"She's not a weapon, Nik." I reminded him. "She's just a teenager."
"The earthquake I was willing to chalk up to hideous coincidence, Nicole, but these winds? If Davina is not sacrificed, then every inch of earth that shook, everything blowing about now will soon be drenched in water and consumed by fire." Nik told him.
"Oh! Now you care about the city." Marcel said sarcastically.
"We ought to. We built it." Elijah reminded him.
"And we all saw it burnt to the ground twice. I will not let that happen again. Do I make myself clear?" Nik asked.
"Yeah. Yeah." Marcel left angrily and the two brothers shared a look.
"Not a people person, are you, Niklaus?" Elijah asked him.
"Nonsense. I love people. Just on my way to warn a couple of prominent ones in case the weather gets out of hand. If you fancy yourself as plus diplomatique, perhaps you'd like to come along." Nik said looking to his brother.
"No. Soon Sophie Deveraux shall be consecrating Celeste's remains, and though her actions are reprehensible, still I should pay my respects." Elijah said and as he started out the door Hayley hesitantly entered the room.
"Hey. Do you have a minute?" she asked Elijah.
"Just on my way out." Elijah said coldly and I sighed before walking towards her, smiling.
"Which one of us is the people person again?" Nik called after him as they both left. I soon saw Marcel walk into Davina's room before walking away back to my temporary room.
"Nikky." I turned to see Hayley and Bekah standing in the doorway and smiled at them.
"Yes?" I asked them.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Bekah asked me as they both entered the room.
"I gave Nik a choice and he chose. I wouldn't believe you if you told me you don't know what I'm talking about." I said giving both of them a look. They had vampire hearing and I know they worried about me so I know they heard us talking.
"That didn't answer the question." Hayley told me and I stared at them for a moment before sighing.
"I'm… surviving." I told them. "Like I said, I gave him a choice and he made it."
"My brother is a fool, Nicole." Bekah said sitting on the bed next to me. "Give him the option to correct his mistake."
"He said nothing, Bekah." I told her. "He just let me walk out the door. He hasn't even talked to me since. Barley looks at me."
"Well he is a psychopath." Hayley said and I gave her a look. "Sorry."
"I believe what your friend means is, he's a paranoid man who knows nothing when it comes to women." Bekah told me.
"Maybe it's me. Maybe I was…" I started saying but Hayley cut me off.
"That's not you." She told me. "What happened to the woman who was kicking ass while pregnant in the Bayou against witches?" she asked me. "I'm going to say that what you were going to say was all hormones."
"I agree." Bekah said offering me a kind smile. "You are not one of those depressing girls who blames themselves for their husband's lackings. Isn't that right, Nik?" I turned to see Nik standing in the doorway and took a deep breath at the anger in his eyes.
"Did you want something?" Hayley asked him.
"We have a problem." He told us. We followed him upstairs to see Davina was gone.
"Marcel." Bekah said before picking up her phone and calling Elijah. "He's taken the girl." Was the first thing she said to him. "Bloody, bloody Marcel!" she said angrily.
"And you wanted to run off and start a life with this back-stabber!" Nik said to her as we all made our way back downstairs.
"Says the man who was shacking up with him not two seconds before all this went down." Bekah shouted at him. "Okay. We need to divide and conquer if we're gonna stand a chance. He could have gone anywhere."
"I'll talk to the priest. They might even be at the church. It's the last place we'd think to look for them, right?" Nik said in response to whatever Elijah said.
"Okay. You check the church, I'll check everywhere else." Bekah told us.
"Nikky." Hayley said coming up to me once they'd made their plans and were gone. "I'm going out to the Bayou."
"What? Hayley with Davina gone and not being sedated it's not safe out there." I warned her.
"My family is still out there." She said and I nodded.
"I'm sorry. I almost forgot they had nowhere else to go in a time like this." I said before turning and heading off to the pantry.
"Where are you going?" she asked me.
"To get food for your family and the werewolves still in the Bayou." I told her as through it was obvious. "Hayley, you, my husband and my children are all Hybrids. The rest of my family here are vampires. I have to look out for my people as they look after theirs."
"I may be a Hybrid, but I will always be a werewolf first. Which is the main difference between me and Klaus." She told me linking her arm with mine while we laughed and went to gather food. We gathered some cardboard boxes before finding canned food we had plenty of and putting them in the boxes.
"What are you doing?" Nik asked approaching us as we packed the food into the boxes.
"We were gonna take these to the—" Hayley started saying but he cut her off.
"If you say, "Bayou," I will find a nice comfy dungeon and throw you both in it. Nicole, this is not the night to be out there—"
"-For anyone." I said cutting him off as he did Hayley. "But some people don't have a choice. My people don't have a choice."
"Your people?" he asked me confused.
"I'm a werewolf, Nik." I reminded him as I had to do for myself often. "I may not have turned since I'm pregnant, but I am what I am now and the wolves in the Bayou need help. The people of the city need help, but even we can only do so much with Davina gone." Nik stared at me thinking about something before picking up one of the boxes. "Nik!"
"Grab that lot and come with me." Nik told me. I shrugged to Hayley before we both grabbed a box and followed him into the windy city. We walked all the way to St. Anne's Church and I looked at Hayley confused before following Nik inside. I saw Father Kieran talking to someone and handing out food. He looked to us and hurried over as Hayley and I looked around confused at the large crowd of people who are milling about inside.
"We still haven't gone through all that you've already provided, Klaus." Father Kieran said and I looked at him confused before back to the other people around us. Two people came up to us and I gave my box of food to them with a smile.
"Well, this newest bit isn't from me." Nik said holding his hand out towards me and Hayley.
"Oh? That's very kind of you Nicole and...?" Father Kieran said searching for Hayley's name.
"Hayley. And these people are? Hayley asked looking around at the people.
"I asked Father Kieran to give them shelter." Nik said and I gave him a shocked and confused look. "He suffers from an incessant desire to do good. But now, I need you to be useful. Marcel and Davina have disappeared. I assume from the stupefied look on your face they haven't sought refuge in your attic."
"No. Those days are gone." Father Kieran told him.
"Then energize your resources. I don't need to remind you how important it is they be found." Nik said.
"Yes." Father Kieran said before leaving to help find them. I looked around at the people around us trying to figure out why these people were here when it dawned on me.
"These people are werewolves... And Father Kieran, he said that you donated food." I looked at him in confusion. "You're helping the very people you ordered a hunt for? Why?" I asked him.
"They're not Hayley's werewolves. They're my clan. Our children's clan. From very far back. They've fallen upon hard times, and their plight has brought out the philanthropist in me. What can I say? Must be Elijah's influence." Nik told me with a small smirk on his face.
"I'll leave you two alone." Hayley said before quickly walking away from us.
"Your clan?" I asked him.
"The blood that runs in their veins runs in mine. And in our children's." he told me and I took a deep breath.
"Your biological father." I said. "I didn't know he had other family."
"He did." He confirmed.
"This family gets more complicated and bigger by the second." I said almost laughing.
"You had once said you wanted a large family." He told me and I laughed at his words.
"Yeah, I did." I said smiling at the wolves, our family, our pack. "Thank you for showing me this. These people. I told Hayley once that I had no pack except you and our children and I was feeling lost. This," I motioned to the people around us, "has helped more than you could ever imagine. Thank you." Hayley joined us with a smile on her face and I shook my head at her knowing she was listening.
"Listen, Hayley, word of advice when dealing with Elijah? Don't do as I do. Just apologize. He's accomplished in many things, but he is a master of forgiveness." Nik counseled her and I smiled at her before the three of us left before leaving for the compound.
When we returned Elijah called for Nik, Bekah and I into the living room to discuss the Harvest. I left Hayley alone to join my family and Elijah told us he wanted to have Esther consecrated in New Orleans soil.
"It's taken one thousand years, but you've finally gone mad. Our own mother?" Bekah asked her eldest brother.
"Yes, our beloved mother, who Niklaus has affectionately placed in a coffin in his basement- not daggered, but quite dead." Elijah said.
"Well, she did try to kill us all." Nik reminded him.
"Using my sister's naivety as a weapon against you all." I remembered.
"Well, I say we put her to use and put her to rest once and for all. Now if we bury our mother on land owned by one of her descendants, she becomes a New Orleans witch, and we, as her family, share in that ancestral magic." Elijah explained.
"We're vampires, Elijah. We can't practice magic. Or own property, for that matter." Bekah reminded him.
"Yes. With regard to practicing magic we have Sophie. She used us and now we use her. After we bury our mother we can channel all her power to Sophie. As conduits of Esther's magic we will need to attend the Harvest." Elijah told us and I opened my mouth to speak, but Elijah stopped me. "And, as for owning property, not all of our mother's descendants are dead..."
"My children." Nik said and we shared a look.
"Your children. The parish Tax Assessor's office is just steps outside of the Quarter. Nicole now holds the title to the plantation. So, if we bury our mother there, and we consecrate those grounds, we can finish the Harvest ritual." Elijah said producing the title to the plantation and handing it to me.
"You're a bit of a mad genius, Elijah. Count me in." Nik said smirking.
"Am I the only one thinking? Our mother was the most powerful witch in history. If we bury her, we hand that power to our enemies to use against us." Bekah reminded them.
"I agree, but what choice do we have at the moment?" I asked her.
"I don't know why I bother." Bekah sighed in frustration. "You three will just do what you want anyway."
"No. Our decision must be unanimous." Elijah told her.
"This is not a democracy." Nik told her.
"You're quite right. This is family." Elijah told him but we fell silent when we heard the sound of a powerful rain storm. "Water. The next sign's begun. Rebekah?"
"Kill a demon today, face the devil tomorrow. Count me in." she told us.
"Well, this is no family reunion without our mother. I'll fetch her." Nik said smirking before walking out of the room.
"Is it me or does he seem a bit too happy about this?" I asked them and received no answer.
That night at the plantation house I shared an umbrella with Nik as we, Elijah, Sophie and Father Kieran were waiting for Bekah in the backyard where we'd had a grave dug for Esther.
"Did you find them? Will he bring her?" Nik asked her as Father Kieran was performing the ceremony.
"He'll bring her." She told him solemnly.
"Are you ready to do this?" Father Kieran asked us.
"Always and forever." Nik said turning to us. He took out a dagger and sliced his palm open, dripping the blood over Esther's grave. He handed the blade to me and I did the same before handing it to Bekah and Elijah. Once we'd all dripped our blood into the grave, Father Kieran took the knife and threw it into the grave as well.
"It's done." Father Kieran told us and we immediately made our way to the cemetery. I took a few deep breaths as we waited for Marcel and Davina. Nik took my hand in his and I looked at our joined hands before smiling up at him. Suddenly, flames started to erupt near the entrance, startling everyone.
"Fire." Sophie said. After a moment, Marcel appeared, carrying Davina in his arms. As he walked towards us, flames followed them in a trail that licked at Marcel's heals. Once they got to the alter, Marcel set her down and Sophie held the ceremonial athame over the flames before she headed towards Davina. "Do you believe in the harvest?"
"I believe." Davina said nodding nervously. Once she said the words, Sophie raised the blade and slit Davina's throat with it. Davina gasped in shock and grabbed at her throat before she fell back into Marcel's arms. Just then the rain stopped and the umbrellas over us were lowered from over our heads. I watched as Davina's skin glowed gold as the magic she held left her body and flowed into the earth.
"After the Harvest comes the Reaping. Their sacrifices made and accepted. We call upon our Elders to resurrect the chosen ones." Sophie said, but nothing happened and we looked around uneasily. "We call upon our Elders to resurrect the chosen ones..." Still nothing happened. Sophie became flustered and I could see tears beginning to form. "Resurrect your chosen ones... Please? I beg..." When it became clear that something had gone wrong, Sophie fell to her knees and sobbed. "No!" I turned my head into Nik's shoulder and cried for the loss of Davina's life.
When we returned home we found Marcel in the courtyard, angrily throwing furniture into the walls. Nik approached Marcel to try and calm him down.
"That won't bring her back, you know." Nik told him.
"This is YOUR fault!" Marcel shouted furiously. "I should have never let you anywhere near her!"
"I'll leave you two alone." I said softly before leaving to my room.
"Nikky?" I saw Hayley sitting in my bed. "How did everything go? Where's Davina?" I closed the door before sitting on the bed with her.
"Davina's dead." I told her and she looked at me shocked. "The Reaping didn't work."
"But they…" Hayley started saying and I shook my head.
"They lied to us. Just as they did when we first arrived." I told her before breaking down again. "This is all our fault. If we hadn't pushed her into doing this she would still be alive."
"No. This town would have burned if we weren't here to force Marcel and Davina to do this." She told me and I smiled at her sadly. "So do the witches still get their power back?"
"No. Since the Reaping didn't work the power is just gone." I said looking at her confused for a moment.
"What?" she asked me.
"That was a lot of power. Enough to bring the city to her knees and force the Original family to murder an innocent girl." I said.
"So…?" she asked wanting to have more information.
"I watched her magic go into the earth. It was enough power to bring four people back from the dead." I told her. "Where did all that power go? Who did it bring back?"
