Chapter 17
"I can't help but feel a little freaked out, dad." Josie sighed as she slumped down into the chair, her twin sister occupying the one next to her as they sat facing their father.
"But how cool would it be if you were a hybrid?" Lizzie chirped and waved her one hand around. "It's like being a Heretic, only less bloody!" Her eyes went big then as she realized something and grabbed her sister's arm with both hands. "You wouldn't need to siphon magic anymore!" The prospect clearly excited the blonde, though her expression turned sad within a second. "Damnit, I want to be a hybrid too!"
"No one is a hybrid, Lizzie. Calm down." Alaric sighed and scratched his head.
The family had spent the past half an hour discussing elements of the dream Josie had experienced the previous night. Josie had explained to them how, when she became aware, she was in wolf form. She explained the full moon and running through the woods. She mentioned Hope being there. She did not, however, give detail on the bonding, once again feeling foolish about it and feeling that it was too personal to discuss just yet.
"What if there is more to it? Dad, there will be a full moon soon. What if…?" Josie trailed off, shivering at the thought of the pain she might have to endure if she had miraculously become a hybrid.
"Sweety, it's just not possible. Wolves are born; they can't be made – just like witches. You either have the gene or you don't. I can't see any possible reason how or why you would suddenly have the wolf gene." Alaric tried to allay the fears he could see creeping over his daughter's features. However, he had been around the supernatural long enough to also realize that there was a lot that seemed impossible that were not. Until 18 years before the notion of a witch-werewolf-vampire tribrid was unthinkable, and yet now Hope Mikaelson very much existed.
"What if Hope's powerful enough to create wolves through biting them? She bit Josie!" Lizzie exclaimed, trying to be helpful but not really adding too much value to the discussion.
"She didn't even break her skin. I highly doubt it." Ric shook his head, unconvinced.
Josie looked panicked. She knew she should tell them. It could possibly help them solve the puzzle. That's if there was a puzzle to be solved. She knew that right now everything was mere conjecture and there was a very good chance that she was still just a simple Gemini siphoning witch and nothing more. She would rather wait it out. She couldn't even imagine having the bonding conversation with Hope herself, much less having it with her father!
"Just… Do you think it's at all possible that something happened while Hope was in my head? Could she have somehow transferred the curse to me?" Josie spoke in a low and careful tone, thoughtful of the possibility of such an occurrence.
"I don't know baby." Ric sighed and stepped towards his daughters, placing a hand on each one of their shoulders. "But I don't want you to stress about this. Everything will be okay. Your sister will stick close to you in case anything strange happens, and in the meantime, I'll get Kaleb and MG back in here for some research, okay?"
Lizzie turned her big blue eyes towards her sister and leaned closer as she reached for Josie's hand. "I swear I won't let you out of my sight!"
Josie swallowed. Hard.
Just then, as if saved by the bell, there was an insistent knock on the office door. "Come in!" Ric called out.
"Hello Alaric, it's good to see you again." Emma grinned at the man as she entered the office and also cast a kind smile at the twins. Dorian had reunited with Alaric earlier upon their arrival, when they negotiated the terms of the pair's return to the school.
"Emma, always a pleasure." Alaric smiled genuinely. He was so happy to have them back that he would have agreed to anything. "And welcome home. Have you already thrown yourself into work?" He asked with a questioning arch to his brow as he tried to see past her to the two students clearly occupying the space behind her.
"I'm afraid I have…" Emma sighed in slight amusement as she stepped aside and gestured for the two girls to enter the office. Alaric and the twins stared in confusion and surprise as they watched Hope and Jade saunter in like naughty children, both of them clearly having had their wrists bound together by a spell, as if tied with invisible ropes. Emma liked to err on the side of caution.
"These two disrupted Mr. Crane's English class by starting a fight." Emma explained as her gaze moved from Ric to the two offending girls, "And I do mean a real, physical fight."
"What?!" Josie choked out. "Who won?!" Lizzie squealed.
"Girls, out, now!" Ric instructed his daughters to leave as he pointed to the door.
"But dad…" Lizzie moaned, not wanting to miss the action. Her whining gave Josie a silent moment to switch her gaze between Hope and Jade repeatedly. Her cheeks were burning hot with irritation, though her eyes were watery with concern. Both girls cast their eyes to the floor, clearly ashamed to be caught in such a compromising situation before the object of their affections.
"Now!" Alaric raised his voice authoritatively and successfully shooed his twins from the office, the doors closing behind them.
Once outside, the twins lingered. "I don't know about you, but I want to hear this!" Lizzie whispered to her sister and nodded her head towards the doors. Josie didn't need much convincing. The two witches joined their hands, while they each placed their free hand on the closed doors. Whispering a few words of magic, they shut their eyes and focused on the voices that they could now hear inside the office.
"What he hell, Hope? I do NOT expect this kind of behavior from you!" Alaric rumbled at the tribrid, then shifted his gaze to the vampire next to her. "And you, Jade, you were already on thin ice! I allowed you back under strict conditions! This does not help your cause!"
Both girls suddenly started talking at the same time, each one trying to pin the blame on the other like petulant children. Alaric raised his hand to quiet them. "I don't want to hear it! From now on, unless I ask you to speak, you shut it down!" To say that he was furious was putting it mildly. He then glanced over to Emma, silently encouraging her to fill in the blanks for him.
"Apparently…" She started, carefully choosing her words as she spoke. "Hope's wolf got a little… restless during class. Jade made a comment that Hope felt was provocative and the issue escalated from there." She explained gently.
"She said I was malfunctioning! How is that not provocative?!" Hope raised her voice harshly.
"You called me a ripper!" Jade spat at Hope.
"You ARE a ripper!" Hope shot back and Alaric just about had a fit.
"Shut! Up!" He shouted loudly in frustration to stop the bickering, then sighed deeply. He had to somehow get to the bottom of the issue between the two girls or he could foresee many more problems in future.
"Hope, why was your wolf on edge?" He looked sternly at the tribrid.
Hope froze. She, obviously, knew exactly why.
"I don't know. I don't want to talk about it." She muttered under her breath, begging the gods that Alaric would just drop it.
He, of course, wouldn't. "Hope." He said in that annoying tone of voice he adopted whenever he knew that she was lying to him.
"Class was boring, okay?" Hope smirked and shrugged, still unwilling to come clean.
Alaric looked back to Emma, again encouraging her to elaborate on what she knew. "It seemed that Hope was eavesdropping on a conversation that Jade was having with her friend." Emma paused at this, a flash of uncertainty shooting through her eyes.
"About?" Alaric asked after a few long seconds of silence.
Emma bit her lip as she watched the girls. "About… Josie."
Alaric blinked rapidly. The girls both seemed to huff and shift uncomfortably, but remained silent.
On the other side of the door Josie's eyes shot open in surprise and utter mortification, while Lizzie's jaw dropped and her mouth curved into a comical 'O' shape. She was delighted at how juicy this was turning out to be, her gaze focused sharply on her furiously blushing twin.
"They were fighting over you!" She grinned broadly as she whisper-shouted at her sister.
Josie was not amused in the least.
"She made a lewd comment about Josie! I was just defending her honor." Hope raged in her own defense, hoping that the way she phrased it might get Alaric's attention off of her and onto the vampire instead.
"By wolfing out?!" It didn't work, Hope realized quickly as Alaric threw his hands up in frustration. "In the middle of an English class? Hope! Are you crazy?!"
"And it wasn't lewd…" Jade muttered defensively, though it was already too late.
"Detention with Dorian, mandatory therapy sessions with Emma, and if you two as much as look at each other in a slightly aggressive manner I'll suspend you both! Got it?" Alaric demanded with authority as he squared his shoulders, towering over the two students. "Dismissed… For now." He groaned in agitation as he turned his back on the girls, allowing Emma to escort them out of his office.
The twins scrambled away from the doors just before they could open and tried their best to look inconspicuous as they hung around outside. Emma scowled at them, but then gave a sort of mischievous grin before she walked off, letting all four girls be for now. Once she was out of range, both Hope and Jade found that they could move their arms freely again.
The long, silent minutes were palpable as the four girls simply stood uncomfortably around each other, no one sure of what exactly to say.
"So…" Lizzie started and the other three automatically cringed inwardly. "Who won the fight?" She smirked at the other two.
"No one." Hope rolled her eyes. "Dorian darted us before anything could happen." She then lifted a hand to the back of her head, rubbing gingerly as she glanced over to Jade. "And I don't know about you, but…"
Jade nodded and clenched her jaw. "Yeah, my head is throbbing too."
Josie sighed out a breath of relief. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she was terribly worried that either of the two hurt the other. She also wouldn't quite admit to herself which one she was more worried about…
And then… She lost it.
It was as if all that worry and frustration just boiled over and she erupted into a frightening fit of anger, taking two steps before she was eye to eye with Jade. She pointed a furious finger at the vampire and growled as her eyes glowed a bright copper hue. "If you're going to be talking about me to your friends, you better do it with respect. I'm not your fucking toy."
Just as Hope thought she could let a deeply satisfying feeling creep up on her, she bit down on her tongue as she found Josie in her face within a second. "And you!" Hope gulped; eyes wide as Josie let that vivid storm of emotions rage within those luminous orbs. "If you ever act out like a disobedient dog again, then you and I are going to have a BIG problem. Understood?"
Three pairs of shocked eyes looked on speechlessly as Josie stepped backward and eyed them heatedly, then turned around and stormed off.
"Am I imagining things, or…" Jade frowned deeply.
"Her eyes." Hope whispered in agreement.
Lizzie blinked and blinked again, then cast her unbelieving gaze at Hope. "What did you do to my sister?!"