I originally had this as three separate chapters when I planned the story, but then I realised that they would be three really, really short chapters, so you get one instead! Also, I got the spell incantation off the internet. It may not be right.
The christening lifted Caroline out of the rut she had fallen into following the Dahlia bombshell, and Hope seemed much happier as well - everyone had noticed how much more alert she was, and Caroline wasn't convinced that it was just down to her age.
A few days before Valentine's Day, Caroline was taking the chance to catch up on some emails while Hope was down for her nap.
The end of February would bring Mardi Gras, and this was the first one Caroline would spend in the heart of the Quarter. It was part of the New Orleans culture that she absolutely loved, so she was trying to figure out if they had the capacity for some kind of Masquerade that year, or if she should park the idea until next February.
A quiet tap on the door accompanied by a "Hey Care," caused her to look up with a smile. "Hey Matt. What's up?"
Matt was hovering by the door, looking uncharacteristically nervous. In fact, Caroline hadn't seen him look that nervous since he met her mom for the first time after they started dating.
"I need some advice," Matt said quietly. "Have you got any sage?"
Caroline set her laptop to one side and checked her phone. "Drawer by the door. You've got about ten minutes before Hope wakes up."
Lighting a small amount of the sage, Matt sat down on the couch in the corner of the room, and Caroline left her desk to join him. "Advice?"
"Don't read too much into this," Matt said warningly.
"Okay," Caroline said slowly. "How can I help?"
"At some point, I'm going to need to make a decision," Matt said. "I'm either going to grow old or I'm going to become a vampire."
Caroline hesitated. "What do you need from me?"
"I need you to be honest with me," Matt answered. "What's it like?"
Caroline huffed out a breath. "That is not an easy question, Matt."
"I know that," Matt said. "That's why I'm asking. If it was easy, I could probably figure it out for myself."
"Well," Caroline began thoughtfully, "it's … exhilarating. It's freeing. It's terrifying."
"What about the blood-lust?" Matt asked. "What's that like?"
Caroline pulled a face. "Difficult to explain. From what I can tell, it's different for everyone. For me, that's the scary bit. When you become a vampire, it changes part of your brain. It's not the hunger - that I can deal with. It's that part of you genuinely wants to hurt someone. Part of learning control is learning how to make that part shut up. And the more you listen to it, the harder it is to do that."
"That's why they have trouble," Matt said with realisation.
Caroline nodded. "Exactly."
A soft cry came through the baby monitor, and she gave Matt's hand a squeeze. "Elena might be a good person to talk to. She might not have made the decision in the end, but she had to consider it. Damon as well, for that matter. I had no idea about vampires until I turned."
Hope's cries were getting more and more insistent, and she jumped to her feet. "Sorry, Matt; I need to go and get her."
"Of course," Matt said hastily. "Go!"
Dropping a quick kiss on his cheek, Caroline blew out the sage and slipped out of her office, heading down the hallway towards the nursery. "I'm coming, baby-girl," she called out, half to reassure the rest of the people in the house.
She wanted desperately to be objective in her advice to Matt, but she couldn't get past the wish to not have to lose him one day, even if that was many years in the future.
However she owed it to him to be as honest as possible, otherwise …
Her thought process stuttered to a halt as she pushed open the door to the nursery.
For a split second, she was frozen in place, struck mute in horror - the wall opposite her had turned green with thick vines that were creeping over the carpet.
She was spurred into action before her brain had even processed what she was seeing, when Hope's cries turned into terrified screams as the vines snuck over the crib and began to curl around her arms.
Caroline screamed as well, grabbing Hope from the crib, but the vines began to wrap around her as well.
Matt appeared in the doorway, apparently having followed her out of the office, and pulled out his pocket knife, cutting away the vines holding her.
They stumbled out into the hallway, just as Klaus arrived with Elijah, Kol, Sophie and Davina.
Sophie took one look at the situation and stepped in; while she set about dealing with the vines, Davina started examining the ones that had already fallen to the ground from Matt's rescue.
"Are you alright?" Klaus asked urgently.
Caroline was shaking, but she was trying desperately to calm down, tucking Hope against her chest and letting her embrace soothe herself as well as her daughter. "I'm okay, just … Someone was trying to take her, Nik. Those vines were either trying to take her or kill her, I don't know which."
"Dahlia," Kol said immediately. "It must be Dahlia."
"I hate to argue," Davina said grimly. "But this magic is far too familiar to be Dahlia. This is Esther's magic."
Caroline suddenly went very, very still. The vampire part of her brain, that she had been telling Matt not even five minutes earlier she never listened to, was getting louder and louder.
Hope settled a little, letting out a little sigh that hitched in just the wrong way. It tugged at her heartstrings and her monster snarled, fighting against the chains she kept it in.
In the next second, those chains had snapped and she handed Hope to Klaus, turning on her heel towards the stairs. "Davina, with me."
Davina exchanged a worried glance with Hope and hurried after her.
"Caroline, where are you going?" Klaus called, comforting his daughter.
"Esther is about to learn what a real mother does when her child is threatened," Caroline said, still with the same calm that had settled over her at Esther's name, "and it's not hand her over to the devil."
"Caroline, where are we going?" Davina asked, still hurrying along in her wake.
"To the cemetery," Caroline said shortly. "Someone's helping her. They must be. There's a gathering this afternoon, right?"
"Yes, but …" Davina caught her arm. "Caroline, you're scaring me."
That brought Caroline up short, turning to face her. "Davina, you've watched Kol's memories. You cannot tell me I'm scarier than he is."
"That's different," Davina said. "Kol's a psychopath. I knew that when I met him. I've never seen you like this before."
"I'm a mother," Caroline answered. "Most mothers would react this way when their child is in danger; I just have resources they don't."
"So why am I here?" Davina asked.
"So you say things like that," Caroline said, giving Davina a small smile. "I need someone to ground me. Nik will just egg me on. I also need you to keep anyone from giving me an aneurysm."
"Just so you know," Davina said, falling into step beside her now Caroline had slowed down a little, "I'm not going to be grounding you when it comes to Esther."
"Good," Caroline said. "That's exactly the moment I don't want grounding."
Madeleine met them at the cemetery entrance. Her smile faltered when she saw the look in Caroline's eyes. "Are you possessed?"
"Not exactly," Caroline said. "The vampire side is a little more awake than usual."
"Esther came after Hope," Davina explained. "Sent vines into the nursery that tried to grab her."
"Holy …" Madeleine took an automatic step backwards, and Caroline took that as an invitation, whether it was meant as one or not. "She's not here."
"She's not that stupid," Caroline said, striding through the rows of crypts. "Someone knows where she is and someone's helping her."
"They wouldn't," Maddie protested.
"Those vines went straight for the nursery while Hope was down for her nap," Davina said, having caught up with Caroline's thought process. "Someone must be watching. And it can't be Esther herself because we know what she looks like and we haven't found Lenore's body or lost anyone else, so we know that she hasn't body-jumped or anything."
"She can't body-jump," Madeleine said automatically. "She'd need someone else to do it to her."
"I don't put any limitations on what Esther can or can't do," Caroline said. "I'd rather be proved paranoid than unpleasantly surprised."
Madeleine hurried to catch up with her, just as they emerged into the centre of the cemetery where the coven gathering was taking place.
A few of the other elders - almost all the same age as Madeleine, or near enough - stepped forwards, but Madeleine waved them down. "Esther went after Hope."
Most of the witches reacted with horror, whether due to the idea of going after a child or that of going against the ancestors, it wasn't really clear - either way it was gratifying to see.
It also gave Caroline a smaller selection of suspects.
Her eyes narrowed and she took a step towards Agnes, the only remaining elder who had survived Marcel's attack the night of the Harvest.
"Did you know vampires can smell fear?" She asked softly.
"Hang on," Maddie said hastily. "Agnes wouldn't help Esther, certainly not when the ancestors …"
"… have been hoodwinked," Agnes announced, glaring at Caroline. "They have been tricked into thinking that this child is anything other than an abomination."
In a blur of movement, Caroline had Agnes pinned against the nearest crypt, a hand tight around her throat. "Where is she?!"
Shouts went up from behind her, but even as magic crackled around her, Caroline didn't flinch, trusting Davina to shield her from anyone trying to stop her.
"Davina, please," Madeleine said, "can't you talk to her?"
Davina shook her head, one hand keeping several members of the coven (including her mother, go figure) at bay. "Hope's a baby, Maddie. It's not fair."
Agnes clearly wasn't going to talk, her eyes daring Caroline to kill her. The vampire part of her brain was screaming the same thing, but Caroline fought it, holding Agnes's gaze.
After all, she couldn't give answers if she was dead.
"Caroline," Madeleine said softly. "I understand. I do. But Agnes is the last proper elder we have; she has knowledge that we desperately need. I know that you have some kind of deal going between the wolves and the vampires, where they take care of their own. Please let us do the same."
Caroline did not look at Maddie, but her grip loosened a little. "You are very lucky Nik isn't here, because he would have killed you already," she said to Agnes, finally releasing her. "Luckily for you, I'm much better at seeing the bigger picture, and I happen to trust Madeleine far more than I trust you."
Madeleine breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me," Caroline said. "You have twenty-four hours to get the information you need and deal with her yourself, or I will make her wish it was Nik standing her instead of me."
"They won't kill me," Agnes said, a little smugly. "Witches are far more humane than vampires."
Caroline laughed humourlessly. "Humane? Aside from attempting to kidnap a baby, weren't you the one that murdered the four Harvest girls? That puts your kill count ahead of mine, honey. And for the record, I don't give a damn what they do with you, as long as you can't ever come anywhere near my child ever again. Now where is Esther?"
"Tell her," Madeleine said warningly, when Agnes still said nothing.
Agnes looked to the other elders to help her, but they had all congregated behind Maddie and were presenting a solid wall of consensus, and blocking any of those who may have helped Agnes just on the principle of not helping a vampire.
"There's a cabin," Agnes said finally, scowling, "out in the bayou."
"I know where that is," Davina said.
"Good." Caroline turned to Madeleine. "I trust you can handle things here?"
"Absolutely," Madeleine said, still frowning at Agnes. "Good luck."
Caroline honestly expected the cabin to be empty when they got there, so it was with some surprise that she kicked open the door to find Esther, in her new body, in the middle of some kind of incantation.
"Lie cle vie la lumiere le sien lache!" Light left Davina's hands and slammed into Esther, locking her inside her body, just in case Maddie was wrong about Esther needing a second witch in order to body-jump.
"You know," Caroline said conversationally, "if you wanted to meet the baby, you could have just knocked on the door."
"You have no idea what you're dealing with," Esther snapped at her. "Dahlia will come for her, Caroline, mark my words. Give to me now and spare yourself the pain."
"Oh, stop pretending any of this is for anyone other than yourself," Caroline said, feeling Davina's magic wrap around her once again in a protective embrace.
Esther noticed it as well and laughed. "You can't hold me at bay forever, Davina."
"I don't need to," Davina said coldly. "Just long enough."
"I just want my daughter back," Esther said.
"You should have thought of that a thousand years ago," Caroline said, taking a step towards her.
"I had no idea," Esther argued. "I was young. I had no children. I was about to lose my husband if things didn't change."
"I've met Mikael," Caroline said. "I wouldn't have thought that would be such a bad thing."
Esther glared at her. "I thought if I had a dozen children I wouldn't miss just one."
"Oh, you thought you wouldn't miss her?" Caroline asked. "Well, that changes everything, doesn't it, Davina?"
"Absolutely," Davina agreed, sarcasm lacing her voice in away she swore was all Kol. "I didn't realised that she missed Freya. That completely excuses selling her to a psychopath."
Esther's spell shattered against Davina's shields, causing them to waver.
"Caroline, whatever you're going to do, do it fast," Davina warned.
Esther gave a triumphant smile, sending yet another wave of magic towards them. "I will have my daughter back."
As Davina stumbled and the shield fell, Caroline ducked the magic. "And I will have my daughter safe." She darted forwards, her hand shooting forwards, the weapon within it sinking into Esther's chest.
Esther screamed, freezing in place, and seemed to shatter into ashes right in front of her.
"What just happened?" Davina asked, getting to her feet.
"I stabbed her," Caroline said blankly, staring at the weapon still in her hand. "When I grabbed it on the way out, I was thinking poetic justice. I wasn't expecting it to actually do anything different."
"Is that the white oak stake?" Davina asked in a hushed voice.
"That's it," Caroline said. "Only one left to my knowledge. Although when we get home, I'm storing it somewhere safer."
Davina came to stand beside her, nudging some of the ash with her foot. "Is she actually dead, or is this some kind of trick?"
"She'd better be dead," Caroline said darkly.
"I'll call Kol," Davina said, pulling her phone out, but before she could dial, it began to ring. "Hold that thought. Maddie? What's wrong?"
"Davina, what just happened?"
Davina glanced at Caroline, who was unashamedly eavesdropping. "We're not sure at the moment. Caroline stabbed Esther and she turned into ash. Why?"
"Because the other three Harvest girls just collapsed."