"August 1359." Hayley read from one of Elijah's journals that she found while snooping around the house. I laid in the threshold of the room curled in a ball with my tail laying across my muzzle, listening to Hayley talk. One ear was pointed in her direction while the other was turned to the other side of the house where Klaus and Rebekah were talking amongst each other. "I have noticed a difference in my siblings. Our bond strains beneath the pressure of our life as vampires. Each day removes them further from the humanity we once possessed. My sweet sister Rebekah has grown quite indifferent to brutality. However, the true problem remains my brother Niklaus. He continues to hide his loneliness with cruelty. Still, I cling to the hope that I, as their eldest brother, can lead them down the correct path, a path charged with the power of a family united… for if I fail, our family's legacy will be in darkness. There are moments when I doubt if my family is capable of redemption… yet each time that I am tempted to surrender, I see it, the glimmer of goodness that allows me to believe." My right ear twitched as I picked up Rebekah's voice.

"I cannot believe you disposed of those vampires without me." I heard Rebekah tell Klaus. "You know how I love to set things on fire." Hayley got off the bed and started to walk out of the room, but I stood up and blocked her path.

"Was I supposed to leave them in the front yard to rot?" Klaus inquired. "Besides, they were my responsibility. They attacked the helpless, pregnant girl who's carrying my child." She pushed me to the side and walked out of the room with me at her heels.

"Oh, I am so moved by your newfound sense of fatherly duty towards the werewolf carrying your hybrid bun in her oven." Hayley walked into the study as Klaus laughed at Rebekah, the journal still in her arms.

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

"Well, that depends what plan you mean, luv—my plan for global domination or Rebekah's plan to find love in a cruel, cruel world—" Klaus laughed as Rebekah smirked on him before she grabbed a pencil and threw it at her brother's face with vamp speed but Klaus snatched it out of the air with ease. I curled my body around Hayley's legs, observing the room.

"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."

"In the front, if we're being specific."

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

"Ok well, firstly, Marcel is not my mortal enemy. He's my friend, albeit one who is unaware that I am 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."

"And thirdly, the plan, as you have demanded, is for Niklaus to simply ask Marcel for Elijah back." I straightened up and tilted my head to the side, my ears tilting with the motion.

"That's not the whole plan, is it?" Hayley questioned them.

"Oh, please. Klaus may be a miserable excuse for a sibling, but there is none more diabolical."

"That's only the plan A, luv. There's always a plan B."

"And what's plan B?" Klaus gave us a serpentine smile.

"War."

TO

I paced alongside Hayley in the foyer as she leaned in close to the study's closed doors to hear the conversation on the other side.

"Are you out of your mind?" Sophie exclaimed. "No way."

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

"Witches who practice magic in this town get caught, and they get killed."

"Yes, about that, it seems you left out a crucial detail when we made our deal—Marcel' secret weapon, the way he knows when a witch is using magic." Klaus said.

"Girl about yay, high, cute as a button, anger issues?" Rebekah inquired.

"Davina?" Sophia sounded shocked. "Where have you seen her?"

"I don't know. The little brat erased my memory right after she threw me out a window with her bloody mind."

"Let me cut to the chase." Klaus jumped in. "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."

"Davina would sense it."

"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 that would create a smokescreen concealing your very small spell from Davina."

"Katie doesn't deserve to die." There was a loud bang and I assumed Klaus was hitting his fist on the table.

"Sophie Deveraux… you're in no position to be so principled." Klaus growled. "You can't win a war without a few strategic losses, no matter how regrettable they 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?"

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

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

"Katie's boyfriend Thierry."

TO

My tongues was lopped to the side of my mouth, hanging out over my teeth as I panted. The muggy air was thick and sticky and was like trying to breath in molasses, but I relished the energy that burned through my body as I ran and ran and ran. When I first become a hybrid, I resented it. The thought of being part vampire and having to drink blood to survive disgusted me. The one thing I loved about being a hybrid was my ability to now control when I turned. The couple hundred times that I shifted; it was excruciating. Every. Single. Bone. Breaking and morphing to create a new form. Now, I could shift on the drop of a hat and barely felt a thing. When I was just a regular werewolf, I was always the outcast because I looked forward to every full moon. The shifting wasn't fun at the time but running freely through the woods all night made up for it. So, what if now I had to drink blood to survive? Now, I could run through the night whenever I wanted to. And I was stronger. Faster. Better. And that was worth any sacrifice. Each time my paws hit the ground, the vibrations rattled through me and sang through my body as the trees became a blur around me. I was lost in the moment; I barely registered the twig snapping to my left. I skidded to a halt, sending up debris and dried leaves all around me as I stood like a statue, the only movement being my ears as they turned this way and that trying to pick up another disturbance. I flattened my ears against my head and bared my teeth, lowering my body to the ground in a crouch as I felt a presence near me. A shadow appeared from behind a tree and I watched him with my eyes. It was another wolf. He slowly approached me, every step full of confidence and power. I relaxed and stood to my full height when I recognized the markings of the only other hybrid, besides Klaus. He had a white underbelly and chest with shades of gold and grey and black filling in his sides and back. I looked around for anyone else, but I didn't see anyone, nor did I catch a scent. He was a long way from Mystic Falls. Did he come here for another pack? Couldn't be. Marcel and his gang chased pretty much every single werewolf out of this area. Could he be here for Hayley? The two of them did have a connection during our days in the Appalachian Mountains but something deep in my gut told me that he wasn't just here to see Hayley. Before I could make any move, Tyler took off through the woods in a blur. I took a step, ready to follow him but with a quick glance at the waning moon told me that I needed to get back home to Hayley. Giving one last glance in the direction that Tyler ran off in, I vamp sped back towards the plantation. As I approached the pool in the back, I shifted and without missing a step kept walking to the back porch, grabbing my black cloak off the railing to wrap it around myself before walking into the house.