I sat on the arm of the couch in the parlor, my left foot planted on the rug and my right foot propped up on the cushion while I leaned on my elbow that was rested on my right thigh. Hayley stood behind the couch next to me, arms crossed over her chest. Klaus slammed Sophie into the chair on the other side of the coffee table and glared at her.
"We had a deal." Klaus snarled at her as she looked up at him with frightened eyes. "You protect my unborn child, I dismantle Marcel's army, and whilst I've been busy fulfilling my part of the bargain, you allowed Hayley to be attacked and almost killed by a gaggle of lunatic witches."
"I had nothing to do with it, I swear." Sophie vowed, splaying her hands out in front of her. "Hayley and I are linked, remember? She dies, I die."
"Then who were they?" I demanded.
"They're a faction of extremists. Sabine foolishly told them about some vision she had about the baby."
"What kind of vision?" Rebekah inquired as she sat down on the couch next to me with Klaus on the other end of it.
"She has them all the time. They're totally open to interpretation. I'm guessing she's wrong on this one."
"Well, how, may I ask, was this particular vision interpreted?"
"Pretty much that your baby would bring death to all witches." I let out a loud laugh and smiled widely with amusement. Klaus shared my reaction.
"Ah, well, I grow fonder of this child by the second."
"Sophie, look." Rebekah said. "I promised Elijah that I would protect the Mikaelson miracle baby whilst he tries to win you with Davina's loyalty. Why don't you tell me just how extreme this faction is?" Sophie looked worriedly at Rebekah.
"Elijah is talking to Davina?" Sophie questioned her uneasily.
"Yeah, as we speak, I imagine."
"I'm guessing she'll have plenty to say about that crowd."
"Do tell."
"I wasn't always an advocate for the witches. My sister was devoted like our parents, and our upbringing was very strict, which drove me nuts. The minute I turned twenty-one, I left the quarter to travel… and play, but I wanted to be a chef. So, I came back to Rousseau's. That's when my sister came and told me that the Elders called a vote and they planned to move forward with the harvest."
"What the bloody hell is the harvest?"
"It's a ritual our coven does every three centuries so that the bond to our ancestral magic is restored. We appease our ancestors. They keep our ancestral power flowing."
"And why haven't I heard of this?" Klaus questioned her.
"Because the harvest always seemed like a myth, a story passed down through generations like Noah's ark or the Buddha walking on water, the kind some people take literally, and some people don't. They had the girls of our community preparing for months. Four would be chosen for the harvest. They said that it was an honor, that they were special. I thought it was a myth."
"Was it?" I inquired, intrigued by her story but before she could answer Klaus' cell phone rang and he stood up to pull it out of his pocket and answer it.
"Marcel, bit early in the day for you, isn't it?" Klaus questioned him as a way of greeting.
"I know I make this look easy, but I still have an empire to run." I heard Marcel chuckle from the other line."
"Rather you than me. All that responsibility. Seems like such a bore."
"This might spice things up. I just heard about a bunch of dead witches out in the bayou, the kind of damage a werewolf might do, only there was no full moon. I have an informant out there I need to meet, and I would love for you to go with me."
"Dead witches in the bayou. Sounds like less of a problem and more like a cause for celebration."
"Well, something killed them and may still be out there, and with your blood the only cure for a werewolf bite, I would love for you to accompany me."
"Well, why not? I haven't been to the bayou in ages. I'm on my way."
"Peace out, brother." As soon as Klaus ended the call, Sophie abruptly stood up from her chair and stared wide eyed at Klaus as if he were going to care about what she had to say.
"You can't go out there now." She protested with an orotund voice. "I need to gather the witches' remains and consecrate them. If I don't get to them before sundown, we lose the link to their magic."
"Those witches tried to kill Hayley." Klaus reminded her. "I prefer for Marcel's informant not to find anything that would lead him back to us, to her, or to, you know, that." He loosely waved his hand at Hayley's stomach indicating the growing child in her womb and she narrowed her eyes at him.
"You are all class." She breathed.
"Stay put and save the rest of your story till I return." He disappeared out of the house.
TO
I walked behind Hayley in the woods with Rebekah in the lead and Sophie behind us. Despite Klaus telling us not to go out into the bayou, Sophie decided to go out to collect the witch's remains. Hayley being Hayley, stubborn as ever, went with her to find out more about who attacked us last night and saved her. I went along to keep Hayley and Rebekah ended up joining us to keep her promise to her older brother about keeping the child and Hayley safe. Rebekah was on the phone with Klaus informing him that we had disobeyed his orders.
"What's the matter, Rebekah?" I heard Klaus chuckle on the other line. "You cross that I'm out with your ex?"
"What is all that dreadful hillbilly ruckus in the background?" Rebekah questioned him.
"According to the dreadful signage, it's Big Auggie's Bayou Bar."
"Well, order up a few rounds of moonshine and stay clear of the dead witches for a few. The witch is on a burial mission, your baby mama is on a spirit quest, your hybrid is playing bodyguard, and I'm keeping Elijah's promise to keep her safe so stall, please." The line beeped as Rebekah hung up and stuck her phone back into her pocket. "So, this harvest thingy, tell me more."
"Klaus said to wait." Sophie reminded her.
"Yes. He also said to stay out of the bayou, and yet here we are amongst the crawly, buzzy creatures."
"We're here." Hayley breathed as we entered a clearing. Dirt was turned up with claw marks and there were scratches along the tree bark. The clearing was full of dismembered bodies and discarded bows and arrows. "Whoa." There was a big pawprint in the middle of the clearing, the claws in the dirt matching the marks on the trees.
"Is that a wolf track?" Sophie questioned us. Before I could answer her, there was a snapping twig sounding in front of us and I tensed up, preparing for battle as I scanned the woods.
"Who's there?" Rebekah called out and a man appeared out of the trees. He was tall and lanky with a dirty blue plaid shirt and a nasty tank top underneath it. He froze when he spotted us, his eyes focusing on Rebekah.
"What the hell?" He breathed. "An original?" The ordinary vampire sped away in a blur through the trees and I leaned against the nearest trunk to me and crossed my arms over my chest sucking air through my teeth.
"Well, that's a problem." I muttered as Rebekah pulled out her phone to call Klaus once more and explained how one of Marcel's daywalkers might be heading his way.
"Let me understand this against all logic, you, Hayden and Hayley went out to the bayou, where you ran into a man you think may be Marcel's informant, then you lost him." Klaus growled.
"Yes, and now that we've established that I am a failure as a sister and a friend and an original, you should probably know he's on his way to Marcel right now to rat me out—skinny guy in a hurry, looks like he saw a ghost."
"I'll handle it. I'll need a distraction."
"I'm on my way." She hung the phone and turned to us. "You three, stay out of trouble. I'll be back." She sped off through the woods after Marcel's informant.
TO
Nighttime fell in the bayou and the crickets and frogs came out to play, singing the song of their people as there was still no signs of Rebekah as we headed back to the car. We had spent all damn day in the bayou as Sophie consecrated her fallen witches' remains. In my opinion, they should have been left there to rot for what they tried to do to Hayley, but everyone had their beliefs and faith, so I kept my mouth shut and waited in silent.
"Those people, all this because of a vision about my baby you don't think is true." Hayley questioned Sophie as she walked to the back of the car to throw her backpack in.
"Look." Sophie said. "I love Sabine, but she's the witch equivalent of a drama queen. I've learned to take little stock in whatever she says or sees. Just kind of wish she'd kept her mouth shut."
"The harvest ritual. You said you didn't believe in it. Were you right?"
"No. I saw it with my own eyes. It was working. It was real."
"So how can you be so sure Sabine's vision isn't?" Sophie didn't have any answer for her.
TO
Rebekah, Hayley, and I stood around the grand piano in the parlor at the manor as Rebekah poured some bourbon in two crystal glasses.
"I don't care if we have to get you a leash." Rebekah retorted. "That was your last trip to the bayou. What is it with you and those wolves, anyway?"
"I feel like we're connected somehow." Hayley tried to explain. "I don't know. Maybe it's just some pipe dream that I have of finding any real family out there, but sometimes when I feel like it's me against the world, it keeps me going." Rebekah handed one of the glasses of bourbon and Hayley looked at it questioningly with furrowed brows. Rebekah closed in realization, forgetting for a split second that Hayley was pregnant.
"Oh, right."
"I'll take it." I said, taking the glass from her hand and swallowing it in a single gulp, gasping at the satisfying burning sensation in the back of my throat.
"Well, if you ask me, family is a pain in the behind, and as for being in it alone, how dare you? I don't ruin a perfectly fabulous pair of boots traipsing through the bayou for just anyone." Hayley smile gratefully at Rebekah as the front door opened and Klaus walked in. "Nik, finally. What—" Rebekah's voice trailed off as she watched Elijah walk through the front door behind Klaus. She was speechless as she ran over and threw her arms around her older brother. "Elijah… you're safe." Rebekah let go of him and he looked over her shoulder at Hayley and me, his brown eyes so round and warm and welcoming. I guided Hayley out of the room to the back porch to give this family reunion some privacy. I stared out into the woods with Hayley, listening to the crickets and insects. The leaves were whispering in the wind.
"I wish you could turn." I said to Hayley. "Then we could run through these woods together. It's stunning, Hayley. Stress relieving. A little bit of pain is worth the bliss."
"Yeah." Hayley breathed quietly. "But in order to turn—"
"You have to kill. I know." The horrid images of my kill flashed through my mind and I quickly shook them away. "That's a memory you can never let go."
"Hayden. Why don't you just go back to the Appalachian Mountains? I'm sure the pack needs you there. You don't have to stay for this family drama that I'm going through." I looked at her in astonishment.
"Hayley, you are my family. You may have come out here to look for your family, for your pack but you are my family. You're the reason why I relish in turning and running through the woods. You're the reason why I've embraced myself as being a hybrid. You were there for me when no one else was. You're my family, Hayley. You're my sister and I will protect you and your baby at all costs." We smiled at each other as Elijah walked out onto the porch and Hayley looked over my shoulder at him.
"You're back."
"I'm back." Elijah confirmed with a smile as he walked up to Hayley. Hayley stared at him for a moment before she reached up and smacked him, the movement making a satisfying smacking sound across his cheek.
"Don't make promises you can't keep. Welcome home." Hayley stalked off back into the house as Elijah stared after her in astonishment. I let out a laugh and followed her into the manor and down the hallway to the study.
TO
"Everything that brought us here to New Orleans was a lie—this story that Sophie Deveraux fabricated, this struggle for control of the French Quarter, this ware between vampires and witches, wasn't over territory at all." Elijah explained to us as we crowed into the study and he began to tell us what he found out during his time with Davina. "This was over Davina. Eight months ago, Sophie Deveraux and her sister Jane-Anne lost everything. Now, four months after that, a young, pregnant girl wander into their restaurant. Suddenly, all hope is renewed. Jane-Anne actually sacrificed her life so that her sister could use you to find Davina. If Sophie Deveraux is successful in capturing Davina, she can return Jane-Anne's daughter back to life. We thought we'd come here to wage a war for power. This is about family. In order to return her niece to life, Sophie Deveraux will fight to the death. That makes her more dangerous than anyone."
