Hope could feel Landon's leg jiggling against hers, and clamped a hand down on his knee to stop him.

"Sorry," Landon muttered.

Hope gave him a smile. "Breathe. They don't bite."

"Bullshit," Dylan said from the front seat.

"Dylan," Alaric said warningly.

Dylan rolled his eyes, slumping in his seat. "What are you gonna do? Expel me? Oh, wait, you already did that."

Hope glared at the back of his head and Landon nudged her.

"Don't set him on fire."

"That's Josie's trick, not mine," Hope said under her breath.

"So about your ex being six feet under the Quarter …" Landon began.

"That's what happens to people Klaus Mikaelson doesn't like," Dylan said gleefully. "Apparently he doesn't like people looking twice at his daughter."

Hope rolled her eyes, checking the time. She dialled a number on her phone and Roman's face popped up.

"Hey! Everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Hope said, taking great satisfaction in the way Dylan jumped and turned in his seat to stare at her phone. "Did you know my dad killed you and buried you under the French Quarter somewhere?"

"He did?" Roman asked in mock-surprise. "You'd think I'd have noticed."

Hope laughed, leaning into Landon so he was in the picture as well. "This is Landon. We don't know what he is and my family's going to try and find out."

"Oh," Roman said with a grimace. "Just be polite and you'll be fine."

"Okay, we're here," Alaric said, pulling up outside the Mikaelson compound. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Hope said. "We'll talk later?"

"Same time, same place," Roman said. "Good luck, Landon."

"Thanks," Landon said, as the call ended.

Hope hopped out of the car and leaned in the driver's window. "Call me if you need me to talk to Jackson. I doubt you will."

"Thanks Hope," Alaric said. "I'll text you when I'm done."

Hope stepped back, watching them drive off towards the bayou. "Okay. Ready?"

Landon looked a little queasy, but nodded. "As I'll ever be."

Hope pushed open the front door, stepping into the courtyard. "Mom? Dad?"

"Hope?" Caroline appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. "Sweetheart, what are you doing here?"

Hope sighed. "Dr Saltzman said he'd call."

"Well, he didn't," Caroline said. "Come here."

Hope hugged her mother tightly. "This is Landon; we need some help."

Caroline smiled at him. "Lovely to meet you, Landon; I'm one of the administrators at the school, so it's nice to put a face to the name."

Landon shook her hand. "Likewise, Mrs Mikaelson - although are you sure you're not Hope's sister?"

Caroline laughed. "No, I just turned when I was seventeen."

"You forgot Mom was a vampire, didn't you?" Hope asked with a grin.

"In my defence, you told me that in the middle of a lot of other stuff," Landon said.

"Good point," Hope conceded. "Mom, since Dr S didn't call - is Aunt Freya in?"

"She is," Caroline said. "Make sure you stick you head in your dad's office as well, okay?"

"Will do," Hope said, taking Landon by the arm and pulling him up the stairs.

On the second floor, she stopped outside her father's office (at least that's what he called it - it was technically an art studio). "Wait here for one second, okay?" She slipped into the room and jumped on her father with no warning. "Hi Daddy!"

Of course Hope had never been able to surprise her father and, as always, he turned at the last minute, catching her in his arms and spinning her around. "Hello sweetheart. I heard you downstairs; do I not get to meet your friend?"

Hope sighed. "Only if you're nice. The whole school already thinks that Roman's six feet under, and I'm not even dating this one."

Klaus chuckled. "I promise I'll be nice, little wolf."

"Fine," Hope said, rolling her eyes as she stepped back out into the hall. "Dad, this is Landon Kirby. Landon, this is my dad."

"Welcome to the French Quarter, Landon." Klaus shook his hand, his brow furrowing. "Or have you been in the city before?"

"No, sir," Landon said. "Although Hope's asked me that before as well."

Klaus studied him for a second longer then turned to Hope. "You need Freya?"

"Need to figure out what Landon is," Hope said. "No one at the school can figure it out."

"Hope, you know you can come to me with problems like this," Klaus said. "I have been around as long as Freya. Longer if you count the centuries of sleep."

"Okay," Hope said. "What dies, bursts into flame and then comes back to life again?"

Her father thought for a moment. "On second thought, go and find Freya."

Hope laughed as her father vanished back into his office and dragged Landon up to the third floor to Freya's apartment, knocking quietly on the door.

It opened immediately.

"Hi Aunt Keelin," Hope said with a smile.

"Well, this is a lovely surprise!" Keelin hugged her. "Come on in; Freya's just taking care of something."

'Something' became obvious immediately, when a little blue streak came rushing towards them.

"HOPE!"

Landon started. "What the …?"

"Baby witches are great fun," Hope said, scooping up her two-year-old cousin, who had apparently managed to cover himself with blue paint - at least, she hoped it was paint. "Finn, was Mommy trying to give you a bath?"

"Uh huh!" Finlay said, nodding eagerly. "I paint!"

"I can see that," Hope said, wiping some of it off of his arm. "You know you're meant to put the paint on the paper, right?"

"That would be far too easy," Freya said, emerging from the bathroom. "Finn, get back here please."

"I'll clean him up," Keelin offered. "I think Hope needs your help."

"I do," Hope said. "We do."

"Thanks love," Freya said with a sigh. "I owe you one."

"Yes, you do," Keelin said, taking her son from Hope.

Hope murmured a spell and the paint transfer disappeared. "Aunt Freya, this is Landon. Landon, before you ask, doing magic like that on young children isn't a good idea, hence needing to give him a bath."

Landon smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I was wondering."

Freya gave her niece a hug and ushered the two of them to sit down. "What can I help you with?"

"We don't know what Landon is," Hope said. "None of the teachers can figure it out."

"Did you read him?" Freya asked.

Hope nodded. "I couldn't get anything."

Freya frowned. "Okay, well let me try." She took Landon's hand and closed her eyes.

Hope watched, nibbling her lower lip nervously, but when Freya let go and opened her eyes again, she just looked puzzled.

"I couldn't either. What makes you think you're not human, Landon?"

"Apparently I came back from the dead a few days ago," Landon answered.

Freya looked at Hope, who nodded.

"It was … quite something."

"Okay," Freya said, pulling her phone out. "Let me get Kol. He's studied more magic than I've had time to."

Kol turned up a few seconds later, with Davina and Sophie, both of whom embraced Hope as happily as her mother had.

Her uncle waited until they had released her before hugging her himself, pressing a kiss to her head. "Hey trouble. Freya says you have a conundrum."

"Yeah, this is Landon," Hope said. "He … You know what? It might be easier if you watch my memory of it. Landon, is that okay?"

"Can I see it too?" Landon asked. "I'm curious."

"Are you sure?" Hope asked. "It wasn't pleasant."

Landon hesitated, but nodded. "I need to."

"Okay." Hope sat beside him and took his hand, holding out her other hand to Kol.

Once everyone was linked up, Kol took them all into Hope's mind, to the memory of a few days ago. Hope couldn't help closing her eyes, but she couldn't block out the sounds of Landon's body hitting the ground, Rafael's desperate begging, or her own painful sobs.

Kol's hand squeezed hers, bringing her back to the present, and she opened her eyes, relieved to see that they were back in Freya's apartment.

"Well, that was …" Landon took a shaky breath. "I mean you told me what happened, but …"

Hope smiled sadly. "I know." She turned to her aunts and uncle, hoping to see some kind of sign that they had a theory.

Unfortunately, Freya, Sophie and Davina all looked as perplexed as she felt.

Kol looked thoughtful, but it did not fill her with confidence. "I assume Alaric has dealt with Dylan?"

"He's taking him to Jackson as we speak," Hope answered.

Kol smirked. "Good. Jackson doesn't suffer fools."

Freya shook her head slowly. "I have … I have never seen anything like that."

"I have a dying memory," Kol said with a grimace. "I'm sure I've read something like it. I just can't remember where." He got to his feet and went over to scan Freya's bookshelves, muttering under his breath.

Hope looked at Davina, who shrugged. "He does this."

Kol paused in front of one of the books, running a finger down its spine with a frown. "I wonder …" He pulled the book out and opened it, flipping through the pages before coming to a stop. "I wonder …"

Davina raised an eyebrow. "You wonder what?"

"You've had no sign of other magic, Landon?" Kol asked.

"No, sir," Landon answered. "None whatsoever."

"Well, we both feel like we met before we met," Hope said. "Even though he wasn't even in the same state until two days before."

Kol nodded. "Have you ever heard of empathic magic?"

Hope frowned. "That's … Isn't that the innate gift of sensing how people feel and knowing exactly how to respond to it?"

"That's the one," Kol confirmed.

"It fits," Hope said slowly. "He's very good at knowing what to say. You are," she added before Landon could protest. "You just don't always have faith that you are. But you are. Does that explain it?"

"Maybe," Kol said.

Davina ducked her head to see the title of the book. "Honey? That book is called Myths and Legends of the Occult."

"I know," Kol said.

"Well, the problem with that book," Davina said, "is that it's about myths and legends. Not fact."

"Everything is a myth or a legend until it is proven fact," Kol said.

"That was very deep of you, brother," Freya said. "Are you feeling alright?"

Kol rolled his eyes and handed the book to Davina. "Here."

"A phoenix is created when a witch is born ahead of their time," Davina read. "They are defined by their empathic magic, and upon death, they are reincarnated. Their inherent magic may or may not accompany them, but the empathic magic will never leave. This reincarnation may happen any number of times. Once they reach the time they should have been born, they …" she faltered. "They are born into their final form, whereupon they may gain memories of their past lives and they will gain an immortality unlike any other. Although they can and will die, they will be consistently reborn from the ashes. This is the legend of the phoenix."

"That does seem to fit," Sophie said. "And it might explain the feeling that you'd met before."

"But Hope's only a year older than me," Landon said. "So I couldn't have met her in a previous incarnation, could I?"

"You might have met Mom," Hope said, "when she was pregnant with me."

"You don't sound convinced," Landon said.

"I'm not," Hope said. "Are you sure, Uncle Kol? I mean, that's a legend. It says so twice."

"It's the only answer I've got for you," Kol said. "I don't have any other theories. That's the only thing that fits."

Freya took the book from Davina and read through the description herself. "He does have a point."

Hope's phone buzzed. "Dr Saltzman's on his way back."

"Here," Freya said, handing her the book. "Tell him it's a donation."

Caroline, of course, invited the three of them to stay for dinner, but Alaric turned her down - as Hope knew he would.

The twins' Sweet Sixteen was coming up, something that Lizzie had been planning since they were about eight, and she was becoming steadily more highly strung the closer it got, so it wasn't a surprise that Ric wanted to get back to the girls sooner rather than later.

When they got back to the school, Ric went to check on Lizzie before taking the book to his office to examine.

Hope headed straight to her room, a new set of paints tucked away in her pocket, which her father had slipped to her when he hugged her goodbye (which he always did).

Landon followed her. "Hey, can we talk?"

"Yeah, of course," Hope said, tapping her fingers against her door to release the locking spell.

"Um, can I come in?" Landon asked, lingering in the doorway.

"If you couldn't, I wouldn't have kept walking," Hope said. "I told you they don't bite."

"Yeah, about that," Landon said. "Why is everyone so scared of them? They seemed fine to me."

"My family has a … reputation," Hope said with a sigh. "My dad's side, that is. They were born over a thousand years ago."

"Holy crap," Landon muttered.

"When you've been alive for that long, and you can't be killed, death … kind of becomes everyone else's problem," Hope said. "My ex might not be six feet under, but most of Aunt Rebekah's exes are. And not just because she outlived them. My father is the monster that the monsters are afraid of."

"Well, he didn't seem like much of a monster to me," Landon said. "And he obviously adores you."

Hope smiled. "I've always been a daddy's girl. Did you just want to ask me about my family?"

"No, I wanted to ask you about the whole 'feeling like we already knew each other' thing," Landon said. "Do you … Do you think it's because we … like each other?"

Hope froze. "Do you?"

"No," Landon said quickly. "I mean, yes. I mean …"

Hope just about managed a smile. "It's a yes-no question."

Landon sighed. "Yes, of course I like you. You're smart and you're funny and you're probably the most caring person I know. I thought the reason why you jumped out at me was because I liked you, but … I mean, you're gorgeous. I'm just … I don't think that's it."

Hope relaxed a little. "Me neither. Don't get me wrong - you're great, it's just …"

"Yeah," Landon agreed quietly.

"My Aunt Elena swears that she has two soulmates," Hope said. "Her husband and her brother-in-law. But her brother-in-law is like her platonic soulmate. Maybe that's what this is."

"Maybe," Landon agreed.

"You already knew I didn't feel that way, didn't you?" Hope asked.

"Well, if I am a phoenix I apparently have that gift," Landon said. "Also, it's kind of obvious that you're in love with someone else."

Hope sighed. "Look, Roman left months ago. Yes, we still talk. Yes, we're still friends. Yes, I still care about him. I'm not in love with him."

Landon smiled sadly. "I'm not talking about Roman."

Hope frowned. "Then who are you talking about?"

"If you don't know," Landon said, "then it's not my place to tell you."