I walked down the steps leading out of the plane. One the runway I saw a man waiting by a Jeep Wrangler. I walked over to him and Nik was right behind me.
"Professor De Marco I take it?" I asked and stopped in front of him.
"I am. You must be Allye Hale and Klaus Mikaelson. Mindy told me your names." Professor De Marco deduced.
"Do you have the scroll and painting with you?" Professor De Marco shook his head.
"No, I have a site set up that keeps a stable environment to preserve the scroll and painting. I'm your ride there." He said.
"Nik and I are actually going our separate ways from here. I'm looking at the scroll and painting." I then looked at Nik for him to tell his part.
"And I'm here looking for a sword that was buried nine years ago in a gravesite in San Vittore." Nik answered.
Professor De Marco raised an eyebrow at that, "Do you have an excavation team ready?" He asked.
"I don't. Actually, I hear you're a well respected Archeologist. I was hoping you would be able to help me with that." Nik said with a smirk.
"I'll call my team to meet you in San Vittore. I'll tell them not to ask questions. I don't need my team involved in any messy vampire business." Professor De Marco said. He gave a hard stare to Nik before getting walking to the driver side.
"Much appreciated, mate." Nik said and then turned to me, "I'll call you when I find the sword and on my way back to the plane." Professor De Marco climbed into his jeep and turned on the engine.
"And I'll call you if I finish first." I said smiling.
"Good luck, love." Nik said with his own smile and gave me a quick kiss.
"You too." I said and walked to the passenger side and got into the jeep.
I buckled my seatbelt and waved at Nik as Professor De Marco drove off.
I walked into the tent Professor De Marco set up. The tent had an actual air conditioning unit attached to keep the tent at room temperature and had very gentle lights to light up the tent. I stopped seeing the scroll laying open on a wooden table and the painting sitting up on an easel.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Professor De Marco said, stepping into the tent and zipping it back up.
"Yeah, it is. It's a piece of history from two thousand years ago." I said as the Professor walked closer to the table.
"Don't touch anything with your bare hands. The oil on them will ruin them. I have some gloves if you need to touch anything." Professor De Marco informed me.
"Now. Before we cover the scroll, we need to cover the painting. Come over here." I walked over to the easel that painting was on.
The painting had red and white pigments. On the painting it showed a woman, a wolf, and a man holding a chalice in what looked like a garden and the moon above them.
"What is this?" I asked.
"The scroll helps make sense of it, but first looks. What do you see?"
"They're in a garden and the full moon is out. I can't tell which one is the werewolf though." I interpreted.
"That's all I got as well. It was too confusing to tell. Then I found the scroll. Now the scroll is written in Greek and I'm a bit rusty with my Greek." Professor De Marco then walked over to the scroll.
"Hey, that's two more languages you speak then I do. I'm just English. Not Italian, English, and Greek." I joked and walked over to the scroll.
"It's cute how you think it's only three languages. I know five actually. Italian and English fluently, my French and German are decent, and like I said my Greek is rusty." Professor De Marco said with a smirk on his face.
"So what can you get translated from the scroll?" I asked, going back to the subject at hand.
"It's a pretty rough translation. There are words in the scroll that there is no word for it in English. But it does tell a story that explains the painting and answers our earlier question. Who is the werewolf? The man or the woman?"
"Okay, so how does this story start?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"It tells us the name of the man and woman. Silas and Callista. Callista was apparently unwell enough that her life was expected to be cut short. Silas did not want her to die. He sought help from a witch that is left unnamed in the scroll. It says on the night of a full moon, Silas brought the sick Callista to a lush garden that was said to be the garden of Artemis herself. Silas had Callista drink a special elixir. It had a mixture of wolf's blood and something else that can't be translated. Callista drank the elixir and Silas casted a spell that drew power from the full moon and drained the life in the lush garden. Callista then turned into a wolf. Marking her the first werewolf in history. The Original Werewolf if you would." I stared at the scroll in awe and wonder. Callista. We have her name. Now we just need to find her.
"I don't know how I'm going to find Callista. Someone as old as she is knows how to keep hidden." I pondered out loud.
"Most people like her will only come to find you, not the other way around." Professor De Marco advised. He had a point. This is kind of like when we were first dealing with Nik. You didn't go to him, he came to you. Nik only came to us due to him discovering the doppelganger was in Mystic Falls. I have to do the same thing with Callista. Make her want to seek me out.
"Is there anything I can use that would make Callista want to seek me out?" I asked Professor De Marco for advice.
"Hm? Let's see here. I've heard the name Silas before in another legend but we've never found concrete proof about it. This is the first legend that involves Silas and has a written record on it." That piqued my interest.
"What does the legend of Silas say?" I asked.
"Nothing much. Just that he was a powerful witch that was imprisoned in stone for all eternity. They say if you wake him from his stone prison, he'll unleash hell on earth." Yikes, but there's my bait.
"That's what I can use to make Callista seek me out. Tell her that I plan on waking Silas from his stone prison."
Professor De Marco nodded, "Now you just need a method to contact her. Might I suggest using the dark web? You'd be surprised how many supernatural entities use it for information." I raised an eyebrow at that.
"You sound experienced in that." I said warily.
Professor De Marco grinned, "I need to get my info from somewhere. Now, would you like a ride to San Vittore? Klaus has not called you yet so I assume he has not found the sword he is seeking."
"Yeah, um could I take a quick picture of the painting? Klaus is an artist himself and seemed really interested in it."
"You may, but your flash must be off." I nodded and took out my phone and went to my camera. I made sure the flash was off and snapped a photo on the painting.
I turned around with my phone still in hand, "Okay, I'll take that ride now." I said smiling. As soon as Professor De Marco's back was turned I took a quick snapshot of the scroll as well. I put my phone away and followed him out of the tent.
I ducked underneath one of the plastic tarps that surrounded the excavation site that Nik had set up. The men were hard at work at digging a pretty big size of land. I saw Nik's back and he had his phone to his ear.
"You trust Damon with the cure? I imagine he prefers Elena the way she is." I heard Nik say. It must be Stefan on the other line.
"Nice try, Klaus. But I trust Damon a hell of a lot more than I trust you." I heard Stefan's voice from the phone.
"The road goes both ways, Stefan. That's why I asked Rebekah to keep an eye on you." Nik turned around and grew a smile on his face seeing me, "Mark my words Stefan. The more who find out about the cure, the more who will go after it. Nations have gone to war over less. You just might lose the cure to someone else. Am I understood?" Nik looked at his phone and put it away.
He walked over to me, careful not to interfere with the archeologist's work.
"How'd it go, love?" Nik asked.
"You tell me." I pulled out my phone and went to my pictures. Nik stopped at my side and looked at my phone.
The first picture showed the painting, "That's the painting. There's a full moon, a garden, a man with a chalice, a woman, and a wolf." Nik took my phone in his hands and zoomed in on the painting.
"I wish I could have seen this in person." Nik commented as he studied the picture.
"So the scroll that was with the painting tells the story to the painting." I said and used my finger to swipe to the picture of the scroll.
"That Professor was able to translate it?" Nik asked, surprised.
"He said his Greek was rusty, but he did tell me that story. The woman in the painting is the first werewolf. The man is the witch that performed the spell. Artemis' Blessing Spell required a full moon and an abundance of life."
"The garden." Nik said and I nodded my head.
"The woman had to drink a mixture of wolf's blood and something else that the Professor said he couldn't translate the word into English. I think whatever else was mixed in with the blood had to be what gave the woman her immortality. When the witch casted the spell he had to draw power from the moon and drain the life from the garden. How familiar does that sound to you?" I asked. Nik grew a serious look.
"The Immortality Spell Esther used on us. She had to drain the life of the white oak tree to give us life. There's the connecting piece to the Immortality Spell." Nik stated.
"That's not all Nik. The scroll named the werewolf and the witch. Callista is the name of the Original Werewolf, and Silas is the name of the Witch." Nik's eyes slightly widened hearing the last one.
"I've heard the name Silas before. He has a cult of followers." I frowned at that.
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Because Kol ran with them in the past. He told us about the legend of Silas." Nik said.
"I heard it from the Professor. He'll unleash hell on earth if awoken. But now that I know Callista's name and I need to contact her and have her come to me. Just like how you were, nobody went looking for you, you found them." Nik smirked at that, "I have to do the same with Callista."
"Do you have an idea on how to do that? Because I do." Nik said as his smirk grew bigger.
"I'm going to guess the dark web? The Professor mentioned that a lot of supernatural beings use it." Nik nodded.
"They do. I was one of them. How do you think I found out about Elena?" Nik asked a rhetorical question.
"Well since you're so versed in it. You mind helping me?" I asked with a smirk of my own.
Nik's smirk turned into a smile, "Anything for you, love." He said and gave me a kiss.
"So what was with the call with Stefan?" I asked curiously.
Nik grimaced and his eyes downcast on the floor, "Connor escaped and killed one of my hybrids." My eyes widened at that.
"He escaped?! How did you let that happen?!" I exclaimed.
"As I told Stefan, pointing fingers isn't going to help." Nik made an excuse as he looked back up to me.
I shook my head, "In other words, you know that's on you." I said crossing my arms.
Nik let out a frustrated sigh and turned back to the dig site. The more I thought about it the more amusing it was. Nik knows every trick in the book, always has a back-up plan, knows when someone's trying to play him for a fool, but he can't keep a supernatural hunter in chains. There is some irony in play there.
"What are you grinning at?" Nik's voice broke me out of my thoughts.
"Nothing." I innocently chided. Nik narrowed his eyes at me and fully turned to me again.
"Liar." He said and took a step closer, "You were thinking of something that you found amusing."
I tried to keep a straight face but I slowly cracked and laughed as a grin broke out on my face.
"You really wanna know?" I asked, the grin still on my face.
"I would." Nik said and eyed me warily.
"You always have a back-up plan, hardly anyone can play you for a fool, you know every trick in the book, yet you can't keep a supernatural hunter in chains. You have to see the irony in that." Nik gave me a hard stare and leaned forward next to me ear.
"Just so you're aware, these archaeologists are compelled by me. They won't bat an eye." I frowned in utter confusion.
"What is that supposed to- MEAN?!" I yelled as I was suddenly by a ledge where a waterfall made a small lake that was about two hundred feet down. I felt the edge crumble away where my right foot stood. Before I could fall into the water below I was pulled back into a familiar chest.
The quiet night was now filled with laughter coming from Nik. He has always gotten a kick out of scaring me. Guess I kind of had that coming for teasing him.
I lightly hit his shoulder, "I almost fell, jerk." I scolded. Nik's laughter died down to a light chuckle.
He put his arms around my waist and pulled me into his chest, "I would never let you fall, love. I just needed to teach you a lesson for the relentless teasing." Nik said with a soft smile on his face.
"Teasing's fun though." I retorted. Nik chuckled and gingerly kissed me on my forehead.
The sound of Nik's ringtone went off in the night air, interrupting the moment. Nik gave a huff and only used one hand to grab his phone from his pocket.
"Yes, Stefan?" Nik asked.
"You want the good news or the bad news first?"
"Surprise me." Nik answered.
"I tracked down Connor. He's at the Mystic Grill." Stefan started.
"And the bad news?" Nik asked, warily.
"He has hostages inside and the place is most likely booby trapped." Stefan advised.
"You expect me to care about bloody hostages?" Nik scoffed.
"You should. Damon does. So does Caroline, Tyler, Elena. If any of them get to Connor, then you just wasted a trip to Italy. I can buy us some time, but Damon's getting antsy. So, if you want Connor alive, you better get your hybrids on board with my plan." Stefan then hung up.
"That's suicide sending a hybrid in. Connor knows how to kill them now. They'd be walking into a trap." I advised Nik.
Nik had a frustrated look on his face, "Unfortunately, Stefan has left me with no choice. I have to do it, love."
"What about Rebekah?" I asked.
"She hasn't been answering her phone which leads me to believe…" He trailed off.
"Somebody daggered her." I said in realization.
"My guess is Connor. Rebekah sent me a message she was heading back to the mansion. I haven't heard back from her since."
"Then we really need him alive. He probably hid her body. He knows he can't kill an Original. I don't like this. The hybrids aren't pawns." I told Nik.
"I'm aware of that." Nik dialed a number and put his phone to his ear.
"Dean. It's me. I need you to do something for me, mate. There's a hunter named Connor that has taken the Mystic Grill under siege. He has hostages. I need you to help Stefan Salvatore get Connor back. You cannot kill Connor. You need to bring him back using non-lethal force. You understand?" Nik ordered
"Yes. Consider it done." Dean answered.
Nik ended the call and I sighed and rested my head against his chest. "It's never easy for us. It always has to be complicated." I muttered.
"I would be quite bored if there wasn't anything keeping me on my toes." Nik answered honestly.
"All I'm saying is that just one day, one day is all I ask, is where the only worry we have is when we're getting out of bed." I wished and loosely put my arms around Nik in a hug.
"We can do that after all of this is over and you're finally immortal. No matter which way works. We'll have many of those days once that's done." Nik promised and held me closer.
My attention was caught behind Nik when I saw one of the men holding a sword. Nik noticed my gaze and followed it. He smirked and let go of me to see the sword. His phone started to go off again. Nik didn't even check who was calling him and answered it.
"Hello?" Nik looked at a symbol on the sword before nodding in approval to the man who held it. The man turned around and walked away.
"Hey, Klaus." I furrowed my brows hearing Tyler's voice on the other end.
"Tyler! I hope you're not causing problems." Nik greeted and walked back over to me.
"I can do whatever I want. I'm not sired anymore." Okay...now I'm really wondering why Tyler is calling.
"Fair enough. Although, I do happen to know your little secret about your time in Appalachia. What was your friend's name? Hayley, was it? You probably prefer I kept that to myself." Nik said with a smirk on his face. Nik made the same conclusion I did about Tyler and Hayley.
Only silence on the other line. This made Nik's smirk get bigger. "I'm sorry, mate. Are you going to answer or should I just assume you're back to being...how did you phrase it? Ah, yes, my little bitch." My eyes widened. Tyler actually said that?
I heard Tyler hang up on his end. Nik looked at his phone in amusement before putting his phone back in his pocket.
"That was really random and made no sense to me why Ty called." I said confused.
Nik smirked, "Oh I know why he called. Dean probably told Tyler the job I gave him. Tyler didn't like it and wanted to prove to Dean that he doesn't have to do what I tell him. Unlike Tyler, Dean is still sired to me. And it's amusing seeing Tyler's attempt at being the alpha failed."
I let out a sigh and walked around Nik. "Where are you going, love?" He asked.
"I want to see the sword." I told and walked towards the site.
I stopped at the table where some archeologists were using very fine brushes to clean the dirt from the sword.
"So this is the sword that will help you read the map of the hunter's mark?" I asked when I felt Nik's presence behind me.
"The very one." Nik answered.
I raised an eyebrow at it, "Looks like an ordinary sword to me." I said unimpressed.
Nik rolled his eyes and dismissed the archaeologists that were cleaning the sword. He picked up the sword and twisted the handle to reveal scripts that could be rotated.
"This is what will decipher the map." Nik explained.
I held my hand out for the sword. Nik gave me a look. "Do you even know how to handle a sword?" He asked.
I glared at Nik, "Children born into the Hale family are taught how to fight from the age of six. Hand to hand and weapon. I know how to handle a sword."
Nik gave a smirk and handed the sword to me, "Show me then." He taunted.
"What?" I asked in shock.
"Show me you can fight with a sword." He said and backed up to the clearing of the forest.
"You're not even armed, Nik." I countered.
Nik shrugged, "You're not going to touch me." I narrowed my eyes at him and walked towards him. I twirled the sword in my hand as I circled around Nik.
"Is that a challenge?" I asked.
Nik's smirk grew bigger, "Yes it is. I bet you can't land a scratch on me." My eyes glowed red from Nik's taunt.
I lunged at him with a swipe of the sword. Nik vanished from in front of me. I turned around in time to block Nik's hand with the flat of the blade.
"Nice block, love." Nik praised.
I pushed him back with the sword and changed my hold on the sword to hold it backwards. I swung the blade again and Nik jumped back to dodge it.
"Changing form in the middle of a fight. Color me impressed, love. You do know how to fight with a sword." Nik praised again. His smirk turning into a grin.
"Thank you. Oh and check your hand." I hinted. Nik moved his palm up and his grin grew bigger. He showed me his already healed hand but his blood was still fresh on his hand.
I showed the blade to him that had blood on it where I blocked his attack. "Not a scratch huh?" I taunted.
Nik flashed to me until he was mere centimeters away from my face. I felt his hand wrap over mine that held the sword. "You never cease to amaze me, little wolf." He said under his breath. I haven't heard that nickname in a while.
"There's still more about me that you don't know." I stated, my green eyes locking with his blue eyes. I took a step closer. I could now feel Nik's breath on my face.
Nik smiled, "Very soon I'll have all the time in the world to know everything about you." Nik countered and slowly leaned in. The sound of his phone going off stopped his advance.
Nik let out an aggravated sigh, "I leave for one day and I'm suddenly so popular." He muttered under his breath. He grabbed his phone and answered.
"What?" He hissed at whoever called him
"I'm at the Mystic Grill, like you asked." I heard Dean's voice. Nik's mood suddenly changed.
"Good. Is anyone around?" Nik asked.
"There's no sign of anyone." Dean answered.
"Stefan is coming at him from the other side. He'll free the hostages, your job is get Connor out alive. And use caution, mate. He favors booby traps and ambushes." Nik warned Dean.
"Understood." Dean hung up his line.
"Let's head back to the plane. We both have what we needed from this trip." Nik said and I handed the sword back to him.
"Next time we're in Italy, let's actually act like tourists." I joked lightly.
Nik smiled and bent down and gave a slow and gentle kiss before pulling back. "I'll take you back here for real next time. I'll show you wherever you want to go, my love."
My heart skipped a beat seeing the way he looked at me. I leaned forward for another slow and gentle kiss. I broke the kiss and gave him a warm smile. "I'll hold you to that promise." I softly said.
Nik smiled and held out his free hand, "I keep my promises." He stated. I grabbed his hand and he led me back to the shuttle that came from the airport.
I sat sideways next to Nik on the couch of the plane. He had a laptop on his lap and was showing me the forum page that he used. The plane had taken off a couple hours ago. While in the air, Nik agreed to help post on the forum to lure Callista.
"So how does this work?" I asked, leaning my head on his shoulder to see the screen.
"You find which forum page you want to post to. You write whatever you think will catch Callista's attention. Then you just have to wait for a response." Nik summarized for me.
"I'm sure there's plenty of Silas forums." I made an offhand comment.
Nik typed in Silas' name on the search bar. Several pages showed up.
"He's a popular subject on here." Nik commented.
"I really have to make the title stand out then to Callista. I just don't know how." I mused and frowned as I thought.
"Use a code word that only Callista would understand." Nik advised.
I looked at him confused, "Like what?"
"Like using Artemis' Blessing in the title. Address Callista as that. She's the only one that had that specific spell used on her. Did you transfer the pictures onto here?" Nik asked. He turned his head slightly to me.
"I did. They should be on the laptops hard drive now." I answered.
Nik started to type away the forum post. Once he was done typing he then attached the picture of the painting and the scroll.
"This should work." Nik said and tilted the laptop so I could read.
The title read "Artemis' Blessing. Do I have your attention?". The two pictures were attached at the top of the page. Below them was the following caption: "I know your connection to Silas and who you are. Let's chat."
"Let's hope it gets a response." I said hopefully.
"It should and when she does, she'll want more proof that this isn't just a hoax. You need to dig up more information on Silas." Nik advised me and clicked "submit post" on the page. He closed the laptop and set it aside on the couch.
He leaned his back against my chest and rested his head on my shoulder.
"Have I ever told you how smart you are?" I asked and looked down at Nik.
"You could stand to mention it more." Nik responded. I brought my left hand up and ran my nails through his hair. He closed his eyes in content and I could feel him relax into me.
I started to hum "A Thousand Years" quietly as I continued to stroke his hair. I could see a small smile form on his face.
"I've missed hearing you sing." He quietly said under his breath.
I smiled and stopped humming and switched to singing softly. Picking up where I left off from humming. As I continued to sing, I could feel Nik start to lean more on me. As the song came to an end, Nik didn't stir. His chest raised and fell with every steady breath. He fell asleep at some point. I gently kissed the side of his head.
"I've waited a long time for someone like you to show up in my life too." I whispered.
I tried to get as comfortable as I could before closing my eyes and allowing sleep to take me as well.
We have a name! Callista is the Original Werewolf from the legend. She has ties to Silas, close enough that he performed the spell to save her life. All Allye has to do now is lure in Callista which is easier said than done. A being that old won't seek out just anyone.