Well... it's been a crazy few weeks y'all, but I finally got the newest chapter done. YAY! :D
I also discovered this new app that I love because I like to handwrite my chapters first (there's just something about the feel of pen and paper that gets the creativity flowing {at least for me}) and the app lets me take a picture of the page and it converts the pen to typing. It saved me four hours in the typing and editing of this chapter.
1919
"You're absolutely sure you don't mind?" She fidgeted with her hat and shifted on her toes, setting the simple white skirt to swaying around her legs. Cool air swirled around her exposed ankles.
"Do I mind watching our little heathen?" She ruffled the boy's neat hair. "He is an absolute nightmare, and I am certain we shall have a horrid time."
"I'm not a heathen," he stomped his foot, indignation made adorable by his lisp.
"I was only joking, my darling," she patted his cheek and bit back her laugh.
Confusion flooded his eyes.
"It's like when I tell you to cause endless mischief for your auntie, but I really mean…" she knelt at his eye level, smoothing his sandy hair back in place.
"Be good?" Large blue eyes blinked at her.
"Precisely," she nodded. Some days she struggled to believe he was already six years old. She had never believed her mother, but it was true that time flew by; in the blink of an eye he had grown from a baby to a boy.
"So when I say you're a heathen, I really mean you're a little angel."
He giggled when she tweaked his nose. His eyes snapped back to his mother.
"I will be back after you have gone to sleep; I expect this new warlock to be a long time in his presentation."
"What does he want?"
"I don't know, baby, but I am going to find out," she smiled, "and in the mean time I want you to behave while I am gone."
"Does that mean misbehave?" He grinned.
"Tonight I mean exactly as I say," she laughed. "Now hold still, mister, so I can kiss you goodnight," her eyes sparkled. Leaning forward she planted a soft kiss on his cheek and smiled as he turned his head to return the action. "I love you."
"I love you too, mom."
She gave him one last kiss on the tip of is nose and rose to her feet.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," she pulled on her jacket.
"Do not rush. It's important to remain a breast of witch affairs, and who knows, perhaps this newcomer will prove the distraction you've been waiting for and off you the opportunity to truly search the compound."
"It's the only reason I am attending," she took a deep breath. It did nothing for the nerves vibrating in her belly. She paused with her hand on the door.
"Elena?"
She turned back to watch the blonde.
"Don't forget your glamour."
"Right," she nodded, catching her reflection in the mirror. Ancient Latin slipped from her lips and before her eyes she watched as her appearance altered.
"You look the same to me," he crossed his arms.
"That's because you have this," she bent and tapped a golden bracelet on his wrist. She smiled at the band that allowed her son to see her while New Orleans saw Isobel.
Her shoes clicked over the cobblestones in a slightly uneven rhythm that leveled out the further she went until she stepped in time with the drum's primal beat. Nearly a hundred people had made the journey to the cemetery and she could see them all crowded around a roaring bonfire.
She found a place in the throng and watched a lone witch dance around the flames to the beat of the Congo drums. She twisted, spun and reveled in the shadows flickering over her face.
Elena observed the assembly and was one of the first to notice the man; tall and dressed in a smart suit of ivory, he cut an impressive, impassive figure. His ebony skin glistened in the orange light, but she took little notice of his distinguished features; the albino python around his shoulders captured her gaze.
He clapped, commanding the attention of the crowd; they fell silent and only the crackle of wood filled the cemetery. He handed the snake to two young men that melted from the shadows.
She squinted at the symbol on the brows of the identical twins; the cross surmounted by two oblique lines was like nothing she had ever seen. Of course, she had only been actively practicing magic for five years and her son didn't leave much time for research.
Her eyes snapped to the man whose voice rang out over the crowd. He possessed an enigmatic voice, and spoke with his hands; he left her with an impression of untold power, and the unknown sent a chill through her.
"Witches of the French Quarter thank you for your welcome; it is good to be among people of the faith," he smiled a disarming smile. "I, too, practice ancestral magic, honoring those who walked the path before us; from them, we draw strength, and you will need strength, for a great darkness is coming. The city your forefathers left you is now overrun by pirates, beasts and vampires."
Her heart pounded; at any given moment she straddled a fence – the line between witches and vampire – and she never knew which side she leaned as she failed to fit wholly in either group. She shifted, glancing at her fellow witches, but nobody bothered with her; nobody knew. A gasp broke from her lips when the man took the python and threw it on the fire.
"I practice other magic as well. Sacrificial magic: channeling power from the lives of my offerings. I use this strength to vanquish my enemies, and I will punish your enemies for their greed." He held out his hands. "In return, you will accept my family into your coven and me as your leader."
She paused at the bottom of the stairs, smoothing down her sweater sleeves. "Everything okay? What's the situation with this new warlock?"
Elena worried her bottom lip as she hung up her jacket; her fingers hooked beneath the chain of her locket. "He wants… power… control over the coven, and he promises to smite all enemies of the faith in return."
"One warlock against the Original family?" Skepticism laced her tone.
"He practices sacrificial magic and draws powers from the offerings."
"Should we be worried?"
"There aren't enough animals in the world to grant him that kind of power," she shook her head. "He'll prove a distraction, but I don't think he's much of a threat. The guy just gives me the creeps."
2011
A hand on her shoulder roused her from an uneasy slumber. She jerked, sending dozens of pages fluttering to the floor. Kol stirred beside her and managed to catch a few crinkling papers before rubbing a sore spot in his neck.
"What's going on?" He rolled his neck, blinking to wake up.
"I could have used another hour or two of sleep," she yawned, rubbing her eyes. AA hard crust dislodged from her tear ducts. Her eyes glanced at the large armchairs where Klaus and Elijah flipped through ancient grimoires.
"I'm sure you desperately need rest," Rebekah in knelt, cleaning the spells, "but your phone has been buzzing incessantly for the past ten minutes... and there it goes again."
She dug the phone free and read the missed message from Jeremy. Three missed calls followed the text. Evidently she was needed at home.
"Everything alright, darling?" Kol stifled a yawn.
"Something at home," she shrugged. "I'll run and see what's going on, and be back as soon as I can. Stay away from sharp objects."
"You realize I am over a thousand years old and I have managed to take reasonable care of myself in that time?" He cocked an eyebrow.
"Oh please," Rebekah scoffed. "Had you been capable of death you would have achieved it a hundred times over. "
"It's a wildly different standard when you're human," Elena squeezed his hand and laughed softly, "so stay away from sharp objects, or perhaps I should be saying that to Klaus."
"You're not funny, Elena." Klaus glowered over the pages of his book.
"I wasn't trying to be," she stood up. "I'll be back soon, and hopefully by then there will be a spell to unlink us. I'd love to slap you both, but I don't want the bruise."
She shouldered her bag, fixing Klaus and Elijah in place with her eyes. "Stay out of trouble."
"You're the one leaving the safety of the mansion," Elijah flipped the pages.
"I wouldn't call the prison you're keeping your mother in safe," she rolled her eyes. "She's powerful enough that she could break through the shackles."
"Why don't you do what you did to your friend's mother: Stop her magic by turning her?" Klaus rolled his eyes.
"You're more than welcome to," she moved backwards to the door, "but I can't. If I turn her we've got a Tyler situation on our hands."
Kol watched her go and stood, looking around the room.
"Where's Finn gotten off to?"
"He said something about looking into mother's spell."
On the other side of town, in the shadow of the old witch house, Finn knelt in the cold grass, traced the faded salt runes with his fingertips and swore under his breath.
She plopped down on the couch and watched her friend sip the hot cocoa she had brewed; rich chocolate filled the living room, drifting up to the second floor where Abby slept.
Bonnie's red rimmed eyes drifted shut for a moment and she took the opportunity to study her drawn features. The weight of the world pressed her shoulders into a slump. She had been through the ringer, and as much as Caroline hated to do it she knew she had to push Bonnie a little further.
It would hurt but there were some things that could not be left to fester.
"How long are you going to freeze Elena, out?"
Those slumped shoulders stiffened, and her eyes snapped up flooding with determination as she set her jaw. "She killed my mom, Caroline."
"Rebekah killed your mom," she crossed her legs.
"It was Elena's plan," Bonnie gritted her teeth; Stefan had told her that much.
"What else was she supposed to do?"
"She could have talked to me and come up with another way," her blood simmered.
"She couldn't have told you anything," Caroline scoffed. "That bracelet you stole was able to control her. She couldn't tell you anything." She leapt to her feet and began motioning with wild hands, "she couldn't tell you she was linked or that Esther wanted to kill every vampire on the planet and throw the balance of nature into chaos. Her options were anarchy or one new vampire. Yeah, your mom lost her connection to magic and Originals were behind it, but you're not blameless in this."
Angry tears sprang up in her wide eyes.
"You took her agency when you handed over that bracelet, and she planned the transition of your mother," Caroline deflated a bit. "Gah! I know you two love each other, but you make it hard sometimes."
"How do you know all of this?" Bonnie crossed her arms.
"She told me last night."
"And you just believed her?" Her brows shot up.
"Yeah, why don't you?"
"She's been gone a hundred years," she shook her head. "I don't know that I know her anymore."
Caroline sank down, perching on the coffee table. The sudden weight of her limbs held her in place. In that moment she wished to be anywhere else, so she could sink into herself and sleep, or at the very least shut her mind off for a short time and not have to dwell on the knowledge that she could have died last night, with her luck she was not a part of Kol or Rebekah's bloodline.
"She's still Elena, Bon," she exhaled, closing her eyes. "Her methods have gotten a little more drastic, and her circle has grown a little bigger, but it's still her, and she' as terrible a liar as ever, so I know she's telling the truth."
Bonnie lowered her eyes to the hot cocoa.
The car rolled to a slow stop along the curb, forcing Elena to slow her speed at the corner. Power coiled in her tense muscles, unfurling with the measured steps that marked her path home; if she were honest the only thing that made the house home anymore was Jeremy and Alaric. She suppressed the humming energy in her veins, but it still flowed out of her to shimmer in the air.
Above her head a finch broke out in trilling song, unhampered by the steady crunch of frozen leaves and the abomination below his lofty perch.
She moved on, rushing up the driveway passed the second car. She paused for a breath and read the sticker proclaiming the vehicle as a rental. She hurried into the house where a familiar scent greeted her.
"Thierry", a broad smile stretched her face in the kitchen, "what are you doing here?"
"Checking on you," he stood from the table, half-drunk coffee forgotten in his haste. He wrapped his arms around her back and listened to his heart slow. "What was up with that call last night?" "Can't a mother call just to say how much she loves her son?" She stretched up on her toes and kisses his cheek. Her eyes shifted over his shoulder. "Jer, Ric this is...""
"We already did the introductions," Jeremy leaned back in his chair. "Personally, I think I'm a little young to have a ninety-seven year old nephew."
"You need to consider the extenuating circumstances," Alaric reached for his coffee.
"Whatever you say grandpa," he muttered, smirking. Alaric sputtered and thumped his chest, coughing up the drops of hot coffee.
"Mom," Thierry drew her attention back, "what happened? You sounded tense last night."
"You caught that, huh?" Elena lowered her eyes, chewing her lips.
"What was going on last night?" Alaric tilted his head. "Aside from the Original witch wanting to kill her children?"
"Had she succeeded she would have killed me as well as every vampire sired by the deceased Originals, no matter how many times removed." She tucked her hair behind her ear and dropped into an empty chair.
"She was going to kill you?" Jeremy tensed. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I couldn't," she pulled the bracelet from her pocket. I couldn't tell anyone."
"That's what you were looking for yesterday," Thierry reclaimed his seat. "I found the notes in your inventory book."
"Luckily she failed," Elena nodded, "and now I have a month to try and reverse what she did and come up with a way to keep her from trying again. But I'm fine, and I'm sorry I couldn't tell you."
"It's okay" he sighed. "So nothing happened last night?"
"Well," Elena tilted her head, "I wouldn't say nothing."
They were arguing again. It was the way of their family when paranoia set in - at least for Klaus. He probably could have spoken his brother's lines perfectly, would have if not for the persistent throbbing behind his brow and gnawing hunger in his body, but even the thought of food brought a swell of nausea.
"Where the bloody hell have you been?" Klaus' shout threatened to break his ear drums.
He echoed Finn's response, but his strained voice went unnoticed by his siblings. He rubbed his temples, drawing in a burning breath of air that set his lungs on fire; he pressed his lips together to hold in the hacking cough.
"I found the remnants of mother's spell," Finn dropped the contents of his hand on the low table.
Burnt herbs scattered over the page, but when he tried to read the hastily copied runes the ink blurred and he was swept away with a sudden spinning sensation.
"Kol?"
The soft call came from far away the second was sharper, closer and spoken in his ear. Something white - hair, maybe - flashed in his vision; blue peered into his eyes.
He blinked, but the room failed to sharpen, opened his mouth, but the words refused to come. Through the scratching, burning pain in his chest he heard a horridly we rattle and he knew with sickening certainty that the sound came from him.
At some point a handkerchief had been forced into his hands, and as the violent hacking reached it's end he opened his eyes, regaining just enough focus to comprehend the pale pink spray over an ornately embroidered 'E'.
"That's not good," he muttered. The metallic taste of copper lingered on his tongue. He wiped the cloth over his mouth. It came back red.
He raised his eyes to his silent siblings.
"As I was saying," Finn cleared his throat. "Mother created her spell and left nothing to chance."
"What exactly does that mean?" Elijah lifted the ancient symbols.
"Mother made him human," Rebekah shook her head. Her voice was strangely tight.
"It means she wanted us dead, and she insured it would happen. It means..."
"I'm dying," Kol's quiet voice held their attention; he could feel the truth of it in his bones. His eyes cut to his sister; a hint of a smirk crossed his lips.
"Still jealous, Bex?"
"Don't be so melodramatic," Klaus scoffed, "you're not dying!"
"Aren't I?" He arched an eyebrow, ignoring the irony of being called dramatic by Klaus of all people. His gaze cut to Finn for confirmation while his mind wandered to the only witch who would be willing to help him. He had no idea what she could actually do beyond hold his hand though, not that he would have raised an objection.
"How long do I have?" He ran through the possible options and the ingredients and time required for each, anything viable would need the aid of the full moon which had just passed them by.
"Moonrise."
Kol's heart stuttered. Swallowing he looked up. "Please tell me my hearing is going and that I missed the word 'full' before moonrise."
He was met with a tense silence and a family that would not look at him.
"Bloody hell."
He stood abruptly and swayed; black spots danced across the sitting room, blotting out the look of concern on Elijah's face. A chill swept over him, racing down the length of his spine. For one brief moment he wanted to sag into the supportive embrace of his sister; he longed for his mother, not the bitch who had condemned him to what was sure to be a grisly death, but for the loving - albeit hard - mother of his childhood. But it had never been in his nature to appear weak or seek help, not since the day he had received his arm ring.
So, he blinked the spots away, gritted his teeth, shook off Rebekah's hand and pulled his arm from Finn's grip.
"I'm fine," he muttered.
"You've got twelve hours to live," Rebekah planted her fists on her hips. She yelled after him as he left the room: "that is the opposite of fine!"
"Less then..." Kol's sharp response cut off, replaced by shattering glass. His siblings exchanged a look, a split second, before racing into the hall where he was holding the railing and staring down at a broken vase. "It was on the edge before I reached the table."
"Where are you going?" Rebekah rolled her eyes.
"To get the rest of mother's grimoires," he gestured up the stairs. "I have no intention of dying tonight."
"Excuse me?" Elena's voice drew everyone's attention to where she stood at the door. "You're dying? How are you... what...?" she gestured to the door and her car beyond. "I was gone two hours."
Elijah handed her the paper Finn had brought back, watching as she read through it. Her expletive was covered by Kol's coughing fit.
The page crumpled in her hands as she pushed through the assembly of vampires and pulled the crushed handkerchief from his hands; her eyes widened on sighting the blood her nose had already smelled. Her ears perked up, catching the race of his heart, and under her breath she murmured a spell that slowed the rapid beating.
Kol lowered his eyes; the handkerchief seemed to spin in his hands, or perhaps the hall was spinning around him. The floor shifted beneath his feet. His knees buckled and he fell.
Elena caught him under the arms, lowering him to the stairs. She pressed the back of her hand to his pale brow and found him cold as ice; truthfully she found that more worrying than a fever.
"Please tell me someone has an idea?" She hated the pleading tone of her voice; she hadn't felt so helpless since learning through telegram that Thierry was ill back in the forties; the despair threatened to swallow her whole just as it had then when she realized her loved one was dying and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
"The solution would be to reverse the spell," Klaus passed a glass of water to Kol.
Elena steadied his hand around the glass when it shook. "Thank you so much for stating the obvious," she gritted her teeth.
"Well, nobody else was speaking," he leaned against the wall.
"And you just had to fill the silence," Kol wheezed.
"Drink," Elena scolded him, tipping up the glass, "slowly."
"There is no reversing mother's spell," Finn nodded to the page still in her hand. "The only thing to do would be to turn him again…"
"That would leave him vulnerable," Rebekah shook her head, "not to mention – potentially – hundreds of vampires."
"Would…" Kol coughed, took a sip of water and tried again. "Would it be p… possible to not discuss me as if I'm not right here?"
"He'd be alive," Elijah glanced down at his brother.
"Or I'd be dead," Kol rolled his eyes. "Do you really think that mother didn't think of that possibility?"
"If you would all let me finish speaking," Finn raised his voice to be heard over the din and the hall fell silent. He looked around to make sure nobody else was going to interrupt him before clearing his throat. "Kol is right, mother would have thought of that. I was referring to the spell that made us vampires."
"A spell that requires a witch with mother's blood, white oak, the blood of the doppelganger and the full moon," Rebekah arched an eyebrow. "That's impossible."
"Not necessarily," Elena chewed her bottom lip. "Your mother is downstairs…"
"I turned her actually," Klaus lowered his eyes under her glare.
"… Two hours…" she muttered, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Kol is also a witch…"
"I'm pretty sure I lack the power for a spell like that."
"You'd only have to be present for it," Elena waved him off. "Klaus has a store of my human blood on hand – unless you went on a hybrid making spree?" She met his eyes; despite having to crane her head back to catch his gaze, she did not feel small. She nodded when he shook his head. "That's two things then and there is more white oak; a sapling replaced the tree you lot burnt to the ground."
"How do you know this?" Elijah's eyes narrowed.
"Do I look like a normal vampire?" Elena sighed. She rolled her shoulders back, adjusting her stance on the stairs. "A piece of it was used to make me back in 1914; I don't know exactly where it came from, only that it originated somewhere in Mystic Falls."
"Do you remember the cave where we carved our names?" Rebekah glanced between Klaus and Elijah, leaving Elena with the sense that Finn and Kol had been left out of the excursion. "I came across it last night when I was looking for Elena. Carvings have been added to the walls telling of the sapling she mentioned."
"Even if you could find it, darling," Kol braced his back against the stairs, "there is still that matter of a full moon that I will not live to see."
It was Finn who answered her confused expression. Her stomach clenched painfully and she rocked forward, holding her head in her hands; mind racing a mile a minute. Time was a precious commodity that they were running out of.
If only she could freeze it.
She rubbed her forehead with frozen fingers. She needed more time; time to find the white oak, time to prepare the spell, time to reach the full moon.
He would be dead before she could do any of it.
If only she could stop the clock.
What a shame cryonics wasn't a possibility.
She needed some magical council. She needed Bonnie – who wasn't talking to her – or Freya – who was taking a very long nap.
"A very long nap…" she breathed so softly the other vampires only heard her exhale. She lifted her eyes, glancing at the Originals who were tied to her and the one who wasn't; Rebekah met her gaze head on and spotted the determined light before her brothers registered the change in Elena's demeanor. "I have an idea; a crazy, stupid, impulsive idea that is just ludicrous enough that it might work."
Thoughts? :D I love hearing from you.