New Chapter. Yay
Down she went, following the narrowing beam of light.
Pressure crushed her arms and legs, but she kept on swimming. She swam past the sound of her mom's scream and her dad's assurance that everything would be alright. She kicked her legs as her own panicked voice circled around.
She could see the shining exterior of the car, dull behind the light and empty of inhabitants; she used it to pull herself around and grasp the handle.
Her lungs burned, but nothing could hurt her in a dream, right?
She pulled.
"You were helping this guy?" Rebekah tightened the chains around Alistair's wrists, hoisting him higher. Her eyes lit on the inflamed mark on his lower arm.
"It wasn't like I knew any better." Marcel narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the bite. He didn't have to ask if Klaus had finally broken his curse, the infection answered that question. He was surprised however by his sire's restraint. There had been a time when the Original would have ripped out Alistair's heart, or divested him of his head, but Klaus had administered a relatively shallow bite far from major arteries and veins; the toxin would take hours to reach his heart.
"You could have asked," she dug her nails into Alistair's chin, forcing him to meet her eyes. She wasn't entirely sure that she liked Elena Gilbert, or her 'relationship' with her brother, but that child was family and they hadn't had a new member of the family in so long. Her pupils dilated slightly. "You tried to steal something very special from us. Children are a precious gift, wouldn't you agree?"
He nodded a jerking movement that only dug her nails in farther.
"My brother's bite is toxic," she leaned back on her heels, inspecting the damage. "It will be slow, and it will be agonizing. And long before it's done the fever will bring hallucinations; I thought I'd help it along and give you a little head start."
Marcel resisted the urge to shudder when he caught a glimpse of her face. The angelic smile was maniacal and sickeningly sweet, painting her as a greater threat in that instance than Kol. And after Kol had put on his little Shakespeare show it took a lot for him to rank someone as worse than the psychotic maniac who had planned to kill him.
"You're going to dream Alistair," she hummed. "From now until the moment your heart stops, you will dream of your wife and your child." She reached into his mind, finding the memories he sought to hide of a young woman before a bassinet. "Nothing happy I'm afraid," she sighed, as if in apology. "Because whatever you see – however peaceful the vision appears – you will always slaughter them both, and you will re-live the pain each and every time." She walked backwards, eyes sparkling as she retreated. "Frightful dreams, darling."
Her eyes cut to Marcel, watching as he opened the door that would lead back to the main part of the basement.
"You could have asked more questions," she repeated, crossing her arms.
"He said he had to get the doppelganger before the Originals could," he snapped, shutting the cell door. "That was more than enough for me."
"You would have hidden a human doppelganger from your own family," she shoved his chest, pushing him up against rough stone. "You know how important her kind is. You know that Nik spent centuries looking for one."
"And just like that I should have handed her over?" His eyes hardened.
"She's not in danger from us!" Rebekah threw up her hands. "But even if she was you should have. I remember a time when you would have done anything to help your family – no matter who got hurt in the process."
"And I remember my family abandoning me to the flames," he grabbed her wrists, spinning around and pinning her in his place.
The light dimmed in her eyes, shadowed by a century of sorrow.
"We thought you were dead," she breathed out, slowly. "I thought you were dead."
"You never looked back long enough to find out," he tightened his hold on her wrists, eyes flickering over her face.
"We were running for our lives," she shook her head, "and you were dead on the stage."
"Only I wasn't." His jaw clenched before he shook his head, laughing softly. "You know, a part of me always thought you'd come back one day, but now it's abundantly clear that you've made a life somewhere else."
"We haven't…"
"You have," he let go of her arms and stepped back, looking away. "I'll help you find the girl. I've got people everywhere, so someone's bound to have seen her, but answer me this, Rebekah."
Her arms slid down to her hips, delicate skin scratching over stone.
"How long until you abandon her?"
Her fingers slipped on the handle. She grabbed it again and pulled, planting her feet on the side of the car.
From inside she heard the barest whisper.
"What do I want, stranger who has all the answers?"
The door gave way; the water pushed her forward into darkness.
"Caroline," Marcel shut the door to the cellar, "that was your name right?"
"Yeah," she straightened up; lowering the map she was reviewing with Kol.
He paused on the way towards the blonde, glancing around the deserted corridor; only Kol remained with Caroline and the witch.
"Where'd they go?"
"Elijah and Nik split up to look," Kol folded the map. "We were just about to set out as well."
"Did you need something?" She shoved her hand into her pocket to retrieve her ringing cell phone. "Just hang on a sec. Jeremy?" She answered the phone, pausing to listen. "No, we haven't found her yet… yes; I realize that Jenna is freaking out."
Kol lifted the phone from her hand.
"Don't bring her down her, mate. The last thing we need is a newly turned vampire in a city this big."
"We'll call when we find her," Caroline promised. She took back her phone and hung up. "Now," her eyes flickered to Marcel, sparing a quick glance for Rebekah. "What do you need?"
"A picture of Elena." He pulled out his phone, rattling off the number as Caroline typed. When the image arrived he sent out a group text.
"What are you doing?" Rebekah leaned over his arm to watch.
"Filing the missing person's report," he tucked his phone back in his pocket. "While we wait I thought your other friend here might try another locator spell."
"I tried four," Bonnie scoffed. She dragged her toes over the cobblestones, scuffing her shoes beyond repair. "I can't find her."
"Maybe you can with a power boost."
"I'm already channeling a hundred dead witches." She flexed her fingers, feeling the energy jump beneath her skin.
"So let's add something new," the corner of his mouth quirked up.
"Something new," Kol cocked an eyebrow.
"A supernatural force – the likes of which you've never seen."
Klaus flipped his phone around from the compelled local and did a poor job tempering his growl; it was almost amusing how fast the kid ran off… almost.
He regretted immediately sending his hybrids out now, and not taking the time to call them all back in – they would have been useful and cut down on search time – but he had rushed headlong towards New Orleans when she spoke, certain that finding her would be much easier.
The best thing she could have done was stepped into a human home, but without knowing anyone in the city that was unlikely, so his best hope at the moment was public places; surely she would have stuck to one of them, making locating her all the simpler.
So far the cauldron and the quarter had come up empty.
"Where are you, love?" He stared down at the phone and the only photograph he had. Countless sketches and paintings littered his art studio, for every landscape or abstract there were two of her, but only one picture. It was one she had taken herself when she discovered his phone was empty.
"What kind of person doesn't have any pictures?" She frowned down at the blank screen, but the corner of her mouth quirked up – how could it not when his fingers teased her inner thigh?
"The kind that prefers to paint," he murmured, lips against her breast. "If I want an image I'll make it myself."
"I've seen those 'images'," her fingers threaded through his hair.
"You've posed for those 'images'," he urged her legs apart, capturing a hard nipple with his teeth.
"They're too perfect," she protested. Her hips rolled towards his fingers. "People aren't that perfect."
"You are."
She had dropped the subject and his phone after that, but when he woke up the next morning to an empty bed he had found the pillow occupied with his cell phone and a single picture in the gallery.
His eyes traced the image, taking in her slight mussed hair and the shadows under her lively eyes. The text he had sent – 'still perfect' – had gained him an early morning phone call and the sound of her exhausted laugh: the by-product of their late night activities.
His phone rang, disturbing the image with the caller ID.
"Kol," his greeting was clipped.
"Marcel got word back from some of his 'guys'," derision laced his tone, "and three of them ran into Elena shortly after she was talking to you."
"Are they sure it was her?" He reached out, bracing one hand on a pillar.
"Apparently it's hard to forget the face of a woman yelling at you in the middle of the street," Kol drawled.
"Your girl's got some anger issues," a second voice grumbled in the background. It was swiftly followed by Marcel assuring 'Diego' that said girl had a right to be angry at the moment.
"Where is she?" Klaus growled cutting off the rambling. He didn't recognize the man Kol handed his phone off to.
"She was outside the Jardin Gris. That little witch tossed three vampires."
"Elena's not a witch," he sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes.
"Maybe not, Nik," Rebekah joined in the conversation, taking the phone from Diego, "but the Petrova family are travellers. Didn't some of Katerina's siblings fight back when you were slaughtering them?"
He straightened his spine, remembering the slip of a girl who had pushed him away. Her power had been new and untampered, but there had been power there.
"Katerina is her ancestor, so technically the power would have been passed on. Plus she's carrying a little witch or warlock so she could have been channeling the baby."
"It's not unheard of for human mothers to access their witch child's power while the baby is in the womb," Kol spoke up. "It's rare, but it happens."
"The more likely scenario is traveller."
Klaus cut in before his siblings could get into a row and cost precious time. "Where is she now?" He heard Rebekah take a deep breath, and what sounded like a body hitting a wall.
"They don't know, by the time the vampires got back up Elena and the wolf she was with were gone. Apparently a couple of locals said a warlock got involved too at that point, but nobody has a name."
"May I," Marcel's voice floated through the receiver; it came out clearer after a second. "Listen, my guys said the wolf was all protective of her, so there's a good chance he's hiding her, but since your witch…"
"BONNIE!"
"Bonnie," he amended, "couldn't locate her it's safe to say that whatever warlock got involved is cloaking her."
"I thought no magic happened that you weren't aware of," he clenched his fingers.
"It doesn't… not in the city anyway. Out in the bayou though…"
"The bayou would take days to scour – even with all of us looking. Don't suppose I could trouble you for some of your 'guys'?" He bit down on his tongue.
"Nah-uh, that's where my help ends. The bayou's crawling with werewolves that are cursed to be wolves on all but the full moon, and I'm not gonna subject my people to the same toxin you hit Alistair with."
"My blood can heal that bite."
"You'd have to scatter out there, and what are the odds you'd find anyone bitten before the poison kills 'em? I'm not risking that. You can head out there and start searching, and with any luck Bonnie can narrow down the location for you."
He hung up the phone before Klaus could respond and took the steps behind the reliquary two at a time, leading the way up to the attic. The door swung inwards, revealing a cluttered bedroom.
A silent girl sat cross legged in the middle of her bed. A white canopy fanned out around her.
"That's the witch that's gonna help?" Kol ran his eyes over the girl's features. She couldn't have been more than fifteen.
"Yup."
Rebekah attempted to take a step into the room only to find a barrier holding her out.
"You gotta ask the lady of the house for an invitation," Marcel inclined his head towards the girl.
"I don't," Bonnie approached the bed. "Doesn't look like she's going to be issuing invitations anytime soon."
"In that case," Rebekah spun on her heel, "I'm gonna go help Nik. Kol?"
"Yeah," he nodded.
"I'll go too," Caroline backed up.
The sound of Kol clearing his throat made Rebekah pause at the top of the stairs and glance back, watching his back as he tensed.
"Maybe you should stay with Bonnie?"
"Bonnie just whooped Klaus and Alistair," she narrowed her eyes, "she can handle herself."
"I really can," Bonnie called, bending slightly to inspect the edge of a bobby pin in the girl's hand.
Caroline moved to follow after Rebekah; Kol stopped her with both hands on her shoulders.
"My concern was not for Bonnie, darling," he met her glare with one of his own. "Marcel's right about the risk. If you get bitten there's a chance we wouldn't get you to Nik in time, so you should stay here until we have a more solid lead."
Her eyes flashed, churning like the sea during a storm.
"Unless of course, you want to die an unpleasant death," he tilted his head to the side.
She gritted her teeth. "Fine, but the second there's an actual location I'm going out there."
"Figured you would," he chuckled.
She opened her eyes slowly, blinking in the shaft of sunlight; it filtered through the curtains, and she held up a hand to protect her sensitive vision. It took a moment before she could think to sit up.
Her breath caught as she took in her bedroom. Her fingers curled into a soft blanket covered in roses, for a brief moment an image flashed in her mind; she saw her parents larger than life and heard a baby gurgle.
She dropped the blanket and got to her feet, moving towards the shelf. Toys she vaguely recalled lined the wood along with pictures and drawings. She left them all untouched as some moments were meant to be.
Davina snapped back into her body and jolted, sucking in a lungful of air. Her eyes darted around the room from Marcel to the vampire outside her door and back before settling on the witch at her bedside.
"You were using magic earlier."
"She was looking for Elena," Marcel nodded.
"How do you know her name?" Davina's eyes narrowed.
"Because she's our best friend," the witch waved one hand towards the door. "I'm Bonnie."
"Davina," she regarded the witch carefully.
"I was hoping you'd help me find her, Davina."
"She's cloaked," she shook her head.
"I know," Bonnie reached into her bag for the map. "I thought you and I could break through it together. I'm channeling a hundred witches and you're…" her eyes flickered to Marcel. "I don't really know what you are, but Marcel says you're powerful."
Her bureau held an assortment of jewelry. A sparkling pair of ruby earrings gave her a vision of her grandmother on a Christmas morning far gone. She recognized her only from the photographs that had decorated their mantle since Gran had passed when she was four years old, but the memory played out in her mind as if it had happened yesterday.
She backed away from the baubles; they weren't the reason she was there.
She made a slow circle of the room, and found one thing to be missing, at least from her plain view.
She moved to the window, lifting the portrait of a horse away from the wall and reaching behind. Her fingers closed on cool leather.
She texted Elijah as Kol drove, speeding through winding roads.
"You like her," she glanced up.
"What?" He scanned the side of the road, selecting a spot to begin their search.
"Caroline," Rebekah clarified, pointing to a small clearing for him to park, "you like her."
"Did my blatant flirting give it away?" He rolled his eyes.
"Oh, please," she scoffed. Her arms crossed over her chest. "You flirt with everyone."
"You're not still sore about poor Georgie, are you?" The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smirk and he cast a sidelong look in her direction.
"I had my eye on him for weeks, and then found him in your bed," she gritted her teeth, but her voice still resembled a whine. She hated the way it made her sound like an insolent child.
"He still would have had you," mirth laced his tone. "Probably would have tried for Nik too."
"We're getting off topic," she punched his arm, "the important thing here is that you like her, and you're not just flirting."
"Of course I am," he stepped out of the car. "Like you said, I flirt with everyone."
"Yeah," her shoes sank into the bog, "and then you sleep with them or feed on them. You only go out of your way to protect the ones you care about."
She cradled the green journal to her chest, lowering herself into the window seat.
She had watched the Harry Potter films with Bonnie and Caroline years ago, and as she held her journal she was struck with the image of a young Harry sneaking through the restricted section while books whispered to him from the shelves.
The journal was whispering words so quiet she couldn't hear make them out; they were little more than a breath of wind rising up to ruffle her hair.
With shaking fingers she pulled the flap loose and flipped open the first page before thinking better of it and turning to the back. She ignored the looping letters as she worked backwards through entries until she found the day after the sacrifice.
Drawing in a deep breath she began to read.
I only intended to write out Elena's subconscious scene today, but then I started and the MarcelxRebekah scene came out and the rest followed. And then I couldn't resist the bit with Kol and Rebekah.
Drop off a review and let me know what you think.