Nik and I stood in the compound watching the wolves train with their new abilities while Nik and I were on the phone with our siblings.
"Enough already with the family squabbling! Come on, Nik! Even you can see that the situation has become awkward!" Bekah asked them.
"There's nothing awkward about it!" Nik insisted. "Hayley and Jackson belong in the compound where they can keep Nikolas and Katherine safe. As much as I would like Elijah's help to kill Finn, if his delicate sensibilities are offended by the presence of Hayley's new husband, then he's welcome to continue sulking across the river."
"As I have explained to you repeatedly, brother, my presence here in Algiers is purely to assemble allies. And given all the enemies we have afoot in the form of wayward siblings and ancient, maniacal aunt Dahlias, I would think that you would applaud my efforts," Elijah told him.
"Well, if it's my applause you seek, you shouldn't have dashed off in a bloody huff!" Nik told him while we moved to our room.
"Can you both stop arguing for once in your lives?" I asked them.
"Exactly, we need to try and stay focused on what's best for Nikolas and Katherine's safety?" Bekah asked them.
"I would like nothing more!" Elijah told him.
"I am doing exactly that!" Nik added.
"See? You're on the same team. Conflict resolved crisis averted." Bekah said hanging up the phone.
"Bring me Hayley and Jackson," he ordered me.
"Since when am I your soldier?" I asked him.
"You're not, you're my wife, my queen," he told me and I nodded.
"Exactly, which means that I do follow your orders."
"But you are also a member of their pack, which means you do follow theirs," he said moving towards me. We'd been distant since Hayley's wedding. I'd been staying in Katherine's nursery with Nikolas wanting to remain as close to them as possible, and he'd been in our bedroom. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close to him. "You are the only person in my inner circle who can know everything about my plans. I know you won't betray me."
"I've never betrayed you, Nik," I assured him. "But I'm sure you can do this without making me feel like one of your underlings." he sighed before grabbing my hand and pulling me with him to the upstairs lounge calling down to the wolves for him to bring their Alphas to us.
"You are not one of my underlings," he told me as I sat on the couch. He leaned over me and I gave him a look. "You are my equal." he leaned down to me when he looked up to see Hayley and Jackson. "It's time to use our werewolf army. Finn and the woman who calls herself my sister are in this city. The wolves can help us pinpoint their location." Nik told them pacing away from us as they sat next to me.
"No, we need all hands on deck here with Katherine and Nikolas." Nik's eyes widened in annoyance at Jackson's words. "I think you can compel humans to track your enemies."
"Do my ears deceive me? Or did you just give me an order? In my own home?" Nik asked, his voice rising.
"This ain't about your ego, Klaus! It's about what's best for those kids." Jackson told him.
"How dare you question my intentions for my children!" Nik said angrily.
"Boys!" I pulled their attention to me. "May I remind you both that Finn's body disappeared from the morgue?"
"Which means that he's either powerful enough to heal from that explosion, or Freya's powerful enough to save him," Hayley pieced together. "Either way, we're not finding them unless we... send our best people out there, Jack." Jackson sighed in frustration at having three people against him.
"I'm sure you and all your merry men will find them post haste." Nik patronized.
"Jackson," he turned to me. "Please." Jackson rose to his feet and stared Nik in the eyes.
"Just to be clear, I'm giving this order because Hayley and Nicole are asking." Nik opened his mouth to speak, but Jackson cut him off before he could say anything. "Don't think for one second that I take orders from you."
Later that day, I was just laying a sleeping Katherine down when I heard someone walk into the nursery. I moved to see Nik knelt down next to Nikolas.
"What are you playing? hm?" Nik asked our toddler before looking up at me.
"I just got her down," I told him. He revealed a cup behind his back.
"I brought you something to eat." I took the cup of wine mixed with blood from him and smiled.
"Thank you." I took a sip of it before going to put away Katherine's toys and blankets.
"I could have brought something else if you'd like," he offered.
"It's fine. I'm just tired."
"I can help you with them. If you want to take a break sometime, I don't mind spending time with our children," he assured me.
"I missed six months of their lives. I don't mind and I'm not stopping you from spending time with them," I said smiling at him. He just smiled before turning to leave.
"Nik," he turned back to me. "Can we talk? We haven't spent any time with each other since Kol died."
"We've been quite busy."
"More like trying to keep busy," I corrected. "We are married, Nik. You being busy should really be 'we', but it's not."
"You've had a lot going on with the wolves and the children, Nicole. I don't want to worry you about small dealings."
"Those small dealings are what keeping our children safe. I have every right to be part of them. You can't just shut me out, Nik"
"I can't let him hurt you," he told me quietly as though trying to keep me from hearing what he was saying. "I can't stand the thought of him hurting you to get to me or them."
"Nik, whatever he does to me I'll heal," I reminded him.
"Not from everything," he moved to me before placing a hand over my heart. "I wouldn't be able to handle it if he took you from me. I wouldn't be sane."
"Then we won't let that happen." I placed my hand on the back of his head and pulled him down to me. We kissed passionately before Katherine stopped us with her crying, which made Nikolas cry. "You get Nikolas and I'll get Katherine?" he nodded with a smile on his face before we parted to tend to our children.
Later, after I pulled information out of Nik, he and I stood in the cemetery, which had become dark and walked through the aisles and tombs when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and I saw Elijah's name before he ignored the call and put the phone away again.
"FINN!" he shouted before he started walking the cemetery again. "I know you're here! The wolves tell me you've been quite active robbing graves and violating corpses! Sounds like you." I turned to look and see if he was going to try anything dirty. Not seeing anything I turned back around. "Why don't you just come out so we can finish this?"
"Hello, Niklaus. Nicole." We turned to see Finn behind us. He must have used magic to hide from sight. Finn started walking towards us as we did the same.
"Such a pedestrian greeting. How unfortunate those are to be your last words."
"Your hubris truly knows no bounds!" Finn said incredulously. "You attack a witch in the very place the Ancestors call home!" he wagged his finger at us and clicked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk, tsk."
"You're a fool if you think the Ancestors give a damn about you," Nik told him.
"They may not care for me, brother, but they hate you." Finn used pyrokinesis to shoot a humongous stream of flames towards us. We quickly moved away, allowing the smoke to clear before revealing where we were.
"You lost a step, brother. But, them being blown to pieces will do that, I suppose." Nik said.
"I hear death makes people confused or insane," I said going back to where we were with Nik beside me. "Then again you were always insane." Nik and I lunged towards Finn and Finn used his telekinesis to throw a piece of wrought-iron fence towards Nik and froze me in my spot. The pikes of the fence embed themselves in Nik's chest, but aside from the discomfort and a small amount of blood coming from Nik's mouth, it did little to hurt him. Finn turned his focus to me and I felt a pain begin in my chest. My heart. He was calling my heart to him.
"Finished so soon, my indestructible brother? Father was right about you! You're nothing but a pathetic disappointment!" Finn called to him. "But at least I know what weaknesses to poke at."
"You judge me? You who cursed Kol to death?" Nik asked angrily. Finn's face actually looked slightly bothered by the reminder of his youngest brother's death at his hands. "But, you didn't stop there, did you? No, there's an encore- you sought the death of innocent children and their mother." Nik finally managed to overcome Finn's telekinesis, despite his older brother's best efforts, and pulled the fence out of his chest. He broke off one of the pikes to use as a weapon and looked at me before turning his attention back to Finn. "My wife and child." Nik threw the pike at Finn, and it lodged itself in his abdomen. Finn groaned in in pain and I was released from his spell causing me to fall to my knees, my hand flying to my healing chest. I watched as Nik vamp-sped over to him and twisted the pike in his stomach, pinning him against the wall of one of the tombs. "For what you would have done to my family, I'm going to enjoy making you suffer." Nik pushed the pike up so that it caused, even more, internal damage, but he was chocking Finn so hard he could barely moan from pain. I moved to his side and watched as Nik yanked the pike from Finn's abdomen, making his brother fall weakly to the ground. Nik was about to stab him again when Elijah finally arrived and pulled Nik off him while pushing me away, shoving us both into the tomb behind him.
"You didn't answer my call," Elijah told us.
"Well, I was a little bit busy," Nik said pointedly and Elijah looked over to Finn, who was bleeding out on the ground a couple feet away.
"I need him alive," Elijah told us.
"Please tell me you're joking," I told him and he just gave me a look.
"I've no time for your soft-hearted sympathies," Nik told him, trying to tug his arm out of Elijah's grasp. Elijah planted himself between us and Finn so we couldn't get to him. "Stand aside." Elijah refused to move and I gaped at him in disbelief. "Let him die, Elijah!"
"The witches want that body returned unharmed." Elijah told us.
"And what else do they want? A parade? Free broomsticks for all?" Nik asked angrily.
"This alliance could be greatly beneficial to us all-" Elijah tried explaining.
"Then give them someone else," I told him.
"Currying some witch's favor does not concern me!" Nik told him.
[Suddenly, Freya appears next to them]
"It should." We turned to see a blonde woman walking to us. She stopped and smiled when she joined us. "Witch allies can prove valuable." She walked over to Finn as we stared at her in confusion.
"Freya. Freya. Help me." Finn begged her. Freya knelt next to him.
"Don't worry, brother. I won't let them hurt you." She used her fingers to life the blue pendant on her necklace towards him and she started chanting. "Yovara vimuna virael." We watched as her pendant started to glow bright blue, and Finn start to scream in agony. "Yovara vimuna virael." Once the spell was done, Finn sat up in shock and stared up at us in horror.
"Who are you?" he asked us scared. I shared a confused look with Nik and Elijah before turning to Freya as she held out two fingers and made a sweeping motion over Finn's face.
"Sleep." As he spoke, Finn suddenly fell unconscious onto the ground as we gaped at her in shock.
"What the hell did you do to him?" Nik asked her. Freya turned to us and held up her pendant for us to see.
"Finn is now safe from harm. And his hatred of you can no longer do to damage to our cause," she explained.
"Our cause?" Elijah asked suspiciously.
"Yes. Ours. And now, if you two can stop arguing long enough, perhaps you'll allow your older sister to offer you a deal."
"What could you possibly offer us besides fairy tales and lies?" Nik asked her.
'Whatever you think of me, brother, know this- when I speak to you, it is the truth. If you have any doubts, remember that it was I who rescued Rebekah from the Fauline Cottage." she reminded us.
"It was also you who helped your brother try and kill my children," I added.
"The threat to Katherine and Nikolas came from Finn. Not me." she looked to the ground, upset at the thought of her brother wanting to harm my children. "The brother I knew would never have stooped to threaten a child. Our mother destroyed him. Like she did me." she turned to Nik. "You. Everything she touched."
"That's one thing I can agree on," I said and Nik looked at her appalled.
"Do not talk speak as though we are familiars! We know nothing of you." Freya held up her hands so that they were facing us and a vision filled my mind.
A dark-haired woman picked up a young blonde girl and was leaving with her as a young Esther and boy both cried in despair. The girl was hysterical and screaming for her mother.
"I cannot give up my child! No, Dahlia, please!" Esther begged her sister.
"MOMMY! MOMMY!"
Freya ended the vision and stared at us.
"Do you still think me a liar?" she asked Nik.
"That proves nothing but your ability to conjure illusions," Nik told her, his paranoia coming full force to the surface. Normally it might have bugged me, but these were our children's lives and we truly didn't know this woman.
"Before you dismiss me, you should know this- if I've woken from my slumber, Dahlia has as well," Freya warned. "Once she's sensed your daughter's magic, she will come for her. And she has the power to kill anyone who stands in her way... unless we kill her first."
"That's quite convenient, isn't it? You show up in the nick of time to help us kill the woman with whom you've spent a thousand years!" Nik asked her angrily.
"You have no idea what it took to escape her!" Freya told him angrily. "Or what I lost in the trying. Her punishment will be profound."
"And you know how to stop her?" Elijah asked sympathetically.
"Given the proper materials, yes. I've sent Father to procure them," she told us and I sighed shaking my head.
"You put the life of my child in the hands of Mikael?" Nik asked before storming off angrily.
"Niklaus," Nik stopped and turned back to us. "This woman has knowledge of the threat we now face and is willing to share that information."
"If she can help us protect Nikolas and Katherine, shouldn't that be enough to listen to her? If nothing else?" I asked him.
"Well, you'll excuse me, Nicole, Elijah, if I'm not inclined to trust the mysterious sister we only just met! But, by all means, if you wish to entertain this idiocy, have at it." Nik vamp-sped away before we could argue any further, leaving us alone in the cemetery with Freya and the unconscious Finn.
"Thank you." She smiled shyly at us. "Your kindness is much appreciated."
"I may be willing to accept your identity, Freya- it doesn't mean I trust you," Elijah told her.
"Then I will look forward to earning that trust," she told him.
"I may not be as paranoid as Nik, but he does have a valid point. We don't know you and you've spent a thousand years with the woman coming after us. I'm willing to hear you out, but if you lie to us and cause me to lose either of my children I will hunt you down and tear you to pieces." I promised. She nodded before turning and leaving the cemetery.
Later that night, I stood in the nursery holding a shrieking Katherine with Nikolas throwing is toys around in his anger and frustration. I tried soothing both alone, but nothing was working.
"Shhh. Shhh. It's okay, I'm here. Mommy's here," I bounced Katherine before turning to Nikolas. "Nikolas, don't throw your things, sweetheart. You'll hurt someone." Neither child relented in their screams. "Please stop crying." I felt someone enter the room and turned to see Nik. "I've become the worst mother on the planet. Six months is enough to make me forget everything I used to know." Nik just smiled at me and took Katherine and cradled her in his arms. I bent over and picked up Nikolas and started bouncing him.
"You're a wonderful mother," he told me looking to Katherine as he snuggled her against her chest. "Hey, come here." they both continued to cry. I placed my head on Nikolas' forehead. "Shhh. We lost a wolf today."
"What?" I asked.
"Mikael ripped out his heart," Nik said. I shook my head and closed my eyes.
"Hayley and Jackson must be heartbroken," I said.
"I still don't trust that woman," he told me kissing Katherine's forehead.
"No one asked you too, Nik," I reminded him. "But she has information we need to protect our family. If it turns out she was lying to us all we have to do is teach her a lesson she won't forget."
"Together," he told me and I nodded.
"Together," I agreed before noticing the lack of screaming. I looked at both children, Katherine just looking towards me, her eyes drooping, and Nikolas, who was sleeping in my arms. "They're quiet!"
"A father's touch." Nik moved to Katherine's crib and gently lowered her into it. He followed me to Nikolas' room and carefully put him down and tucked him in. I smiled at him before going back to my room, closing the adjoining door. I moved to the nursery and closed the door before turning to Nik. Nik moved to me and gently moved his hand along my collarbone. My eyes fluttered closed at the gentle touch. He moved his hand to the bottom of my shirt and slowly pulled it over my head as I turned to him. We started making out passionately before speeding to the bed. I pushed him onto the bed before jumping on top of him.
3rd POV
In every moment, a choice exists. We can cling to the past, or embrace the inevitability of change.
Klaus looked down at his sleeping wife and made sure she was covered completely before rising from the bed.
And allow a brighter future to unfold for us.
He dressed quickly before looking back at her, a small smile on his face. He knew he couldn't involve her with his portion of his plan. He had to keep her in the dark about his deal with Aiden.
Such an uncertain future may cause for even more uncertain allies.
He left quietly and saw Aiden at the tavern, sitting next to him.
Either way, a new day is coming, whether we like it or not. The question is, will you control it, or will it control you?
"You know, for centuries, werewolf Alphas have lived as kings of a frightened or cursed people, forced to change every month on the full moon. But now, your pack is cured! You can change at will." Klaus told him and Aiden silently nodding in agreement. "You are at peace, and yet Jackson takes his leadership for granted. He doesn't see that we live in a new world, which is precisely why the wolves need a new leader. Someone chosen by the wolves to guide them into a new future. Someone like you. I can help you become the leader your pack deserves."
"Yeah? And what's in it for you?" Aiden asked him sarcastically.
"In return, I would only ask that you and your pack swear to protect my daughter. That is all I will ever ask of you because that is all that matters to me." Klaus told him. Aiden seemed impressed by this uncharacteristically selfless response and considered his words. "You can let me know when you're ready. But, do bear in mind that time is forever ticking forward. Which means that tomorrow-" Klaus tapped the glass of Aiden's wristwatch. "- is already here."
