I do not own TVD or TO.
Sorry for the delay in updating this one y'all. I got busy on other stories, but I'm gonna try to get back on a schedule for my updates and which stories I work on, so ideally I'll update at least one story every day or so. The chapter for this one got a little long so I've split it in two pieces.
Elena ran her fingers along the railing and took slow steps up the narrow stairs leading to an attic. Plucking at the hem of her camisole she lifted her eyes from her feet to the landing.
"Do you think he's really in the house?"
Kol glanced back over his shoulder, twisting the antique doorknob he contemplated lying to her, but the nervous set of her mouth kept the reassuring words from leaving his lips. He heard her heart, pounding a little faster after the climb, stutter when he shook his head.
"I don't think so," pushing open the door he led her inside, "but I'm not leaving any stone unturned."
She ran a hand through her heavy hair, lifting the dark locks from her neck in an attempt to ease the tension headache forming; she could feel the pull at the roots of every silken strand. The added thickness was not helping.
"Alright, darling?" He flipped on the flashlight on his phone, more for her benefit than his.
"I'm fine," she blew out a slow rush of air. Her eyes flickered from one corner of the room to the next; it was the standard attic found in many older homes. Boxes were pushed into the far corners of the room up against every wall, a couple of end tables littered the floor, and a sheet was draped over what looked like a chaise, but there was no sign of Elijah so Elena was confused when Kol started moving further into the room.
"What are you doing?"
"Moving some boxes," he pulled cardboard boxes from the wall, clearing a space in front of the paneling. "I didn't spend as much time in this house as Bex, but I do know there is a hidden room behind this wall."
Nodding she stepped forward and extended her arms to take hold of the bottom corners of the next box in the pile.
"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" He took her hands and pinned them to her sides.
"I'm helping," she shook off his light grip and reached again.
"You shouldn't be lifting…"
"I am pregnant," she crossed her arms and glared, "not incompetent, and I am fully capable of lifting a few boxes."
He tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow before turning around and flipping open the lid of the box she had been getting ready to lift.
"Almost every box in this attic contains either a dozen books, or some obscure artifact from an even more obscure dynasty," he closed the lid again and lifted the box. "Every box is somewhere between thirty and fifty pounds, so yes you might be capable of lifting a few boxes, but it will not be these ones."
She took a step back and sighed, watching him pull a dozen boxes into the center of the room; the final one sent up a cloud of dust that made her sneeze.
She couldn't see the door until Kol pushed a panel of wood and it sprang back towards him. The few seconds it took for him to pull open the door and shine his flashlight inside seemed to last for an eternity.
Disappointment sagged through her. Even after Kol had admitted to not believing his brother would be in the house she had still held out hope that they would find a mahogany coffin in the hidden space that didn't look much bigger than a coffin.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Darling?" Kol slammed the door shut. He reached a tentative hand for her trembling shoulder.
"I… I…" She swallowed back her despair and shook her head. "I'm good."
Kol's eyes narrowed. There was a quiet determination in her gaze and the set of her jaw. She was not alright, nobody in her position would be, but she would keep going and save her sorrow for behind a closed door where none would see the grief. She had cried in front of him, angry tears, confused tears, tears brought on by the hormonal fluctuations in her changing body, but he knew she wouldn't allow herself to be truly vulnerable with him; they weren't close enough for her to feel that comfortable yet. He doubted she would have broken down with Caroline either.
He tilted his head to the right and lowered his hand.
"I can hear Rebekah and Hayley downstairs," he nodded to the door, "why don't you take a minute and then meet me in the corridor?"
She was going to protest, to tell him that she was fine, but the lump in her throat prevented her from speaking and the tears were burning right behind her eyes, so she said nothing, and when he was gone she backed up and perched on the side of the chaise.
Everything in her life had spiraled so far out of her control in so little time, but the one thing she had thought she could count on was her body. She had always held control over her mind and been able to hold her tears at bay, but sharing her body with two other people made it that much harder, so she sat.
She sat on the arm of the thin sofa and took slow shallow breaths until she felt her stomach stop knotting and the pressure in her head dissipate somewhat as a single tear rolled over her cheek.
She wiped it away with her index finger and stood up; there was more of the house to search.
Rebekah waved a few cobwebs from in front of her face, cringing as the sticky material clung to her hand. Seriously, would it have killed Klaus to do a little light dusting?
"Where are we going?" Hayley followed the blonde down the final leg of a winding staircase. Goosebumps rose on her arms the lower they went into the secret passage Rebekah had opened.
Hayley's eyes grew round when she entered they cellar and spotted the coffins; pristine mahogany shining in the beam of the flashlight.
"You think Klaus killed him?" Her eyes darted to Rebekah. If the hybrid was capable of murdering his brother what were her odds of survival in the house?
Rebekah rolled her eyes and scoffed. Wasn't this girl supposed to know something about Originals? She had lived in Mystic Falls for a time, and everyone in that sorry excuse for a town knew.
"We can't be killed, silly girl," she scanned the coffins in the gloom. "That doesn't stop Klaus from finding ways to torture us. He has a set of mystical silver daggers; one in the heart sends us into a deep slumber."
"He gets his jollies from keeping us in a box, until he decides to pull the dagger out." Rebekah's eyes cut to Hayley as she pointed to the shortest of the three coffins in the cellar. "This one's mine."
"He keeps your coffin on standby," Hayley gave the blonde an incredulous look.
"He likes to be prepared for when his family members inevitably disappoint him," Rebekah smirked.
"I feel sick," Hayley held her stomach as it turned, threatening to revolt and bring up her supper.
"Welcome to the family, love," Rebekah sighed. She gave the coffins one final look before starting up the stairs with Hayley on her heels. "You should have run the second you realized Elijah was gone."
Hayley gripped the rail until her knuckles turned white; that had been her first thought when the witches took her.
"I can't," she gritted her teeth.
Rebekah paused on the stairs and turned around to find a knot between the werewolf's brows. Her hands gestured towards her flat stomach sharply.
"The witches hexed me. As long as I'm carrying this baby, I can't leave New Orleans; they'll kill me if I do."
"Knowing my brother, he's planning a box for you the second you give birth to whatever it is cooking in your tum," Rebekah's right hand found her hip. "I for one will be leaving the moment I find Elijah because being daggered in a box for decades sucks."
"Will he have one for Elena too?" Hayley cocked an eyebrow. She frowned when Rebekah scoffed.
"Doubtful," the blonde couldn't help her smirk, "she's the key to his hybrid army," her mouth twisted around the words, "and she's furthering her bloodline; plus Elijah would never let him lay a hand on her."
"He'd let Klaus hurt me?" Hayley shook with a myriad of emotions. What had Elena ever done to get Elijah on her side? What was it about the doppelganger that had men throwing themselves in the line of fire to keep her safe?
Rebekah looked the angry wolf up and down. She knew he'd never let harm come to her while she carried a child he viewed as innocent, but she didn't know if he'd stand in the way when the child was born; it would all depend on Hayley. If the werewolf took action against one of them then she knew Elijah would have killed her himself.
"I don't know," she admitted.
She emerged in the library and walked into the hall where she spotted Kol descending the stairs with Elena. She glanced at the pale features of the brunette before meeting her brother's eyes with a questioning look.
"What did you find?" He gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head.
"Caskets," Rebekah crossed her arms and tossed her hair over her shoulder. She saw Elena perk up a bit. "Three of them: all empty."
"How do you know that?" Hayley came out of the library. "You didn't open them."
"I didn't have to," Rebekah rolled her eyes. She turned her gaze back to Kol. "He's got mine, yours, and mothers," her brows rose when she caught Elena's eyes. "Yes, love, he's still hauling around our 'darling' mother, but Elijah's is missing."
"I thought Klaus always kept you all together," Elena lifted her hair up and over her shoulder; the new position eased her headache a bit.
"He does," Kol sighed, "And if Elijah's not down there then…"
"He's not in the house," Elena finished. She looked between the siblings. "What now?"
"Now I look for the witch," Rebekah inhaled slowly and closed her eyes trying to summon the name. "It starts with 's'… Sadie… Susie…"
"Sophie," Hayley supplied.
"That's it," Rebekah snapped her fingers.
Elena blinked when Rebekah vanished.
"Will you be alright alone, Hayley?" Kol turned his attention to the werewolf.
"I've been on my own since I was thirteen," she crossed her arms.
"Come on, darling," Kol offered his arm to Elena, "the witch will need something of Elijah's to work with. How comfortable are you running?"
"I think we're about to find out," she took a deep breath. Closing her eyes she nodded and felt Kol's arms wrap around her waist.
Rebekah was walking past a few burial vaults when she heard the sound of a vampire approaching and made out the sound of Elena telling Kol not to let go yet; she knew her brother would be able to hear the remainder of her conversation with the witch.
"Elijah likely has a dagger in his chest; it's a magical object and you're a witch." She stopped walking and faced the brunette. "Do a locator spell and find the dagger; you find that and we find Elijah."
Sophie shook her head and crossed her arms.
"I can't use magic." Her eyes narrowed. "It's punishable by death… Marcel's rules." She shrugged.
"Marcel?" Rebekah scoffed. "What do you think I'm going to do to you if you don't give me what I want?"
She felt the sudden urge to wrap her hands around the witch's throat when Sophie smirked.
"Not much. I've been linked, so whatever you do to me, you do to Hayley."
"Who?"
"Really sister?" Kol's voice reached her sensitive ears at the same moment Sophie gave her a pointed look.
"Right," she shook her head and sighed, "the mumzy. Luckily for you, Elijah seems to care about her, otherwise I'd break you neck right here."
She looked Sophie up and down before repeating the question drifting to her ears.
"How did Marcel get so bloody powerful, anyway? He wasn't like this when I left a hundred years ago."
"Marcel has a way to tell whenever there's magic done in the Quarter. The 'how' isn't relevant."
"Kol?" Elena swallowed. He had stopped them from moving after they'd only gone a few feet. "What happened to the locator spell?"
"Change of plans," he steered her back towards the entrance.
"But…" Elena looked back to the cemetery, "… there's a witch right there…"
"A witch who is bound to Hayley," he whispered, "whatever happens to her, happens to Hayley and the child. I won't give her the chance to hex you."
"I thought you said they couldn't use magic?" Elena frowned when they stepped out onto the street.
"They can't," he agreed, "but they found a way to hex one pregnant woman."
"Family's overrated," Rebekah held her hands behind her back and shook her head, "just take a look at me. I'm back in a city that's given me nothing but heartache, looking for a brother who's hell-bent on protecting a baby I don't care about."
"That's hard to believe," Sophie crossed her arms when Rebekah gave her an incredulous look. "You're here, aren't you?"
"I'm here for Elijah," Rebekah's eyes flashed. "The instant I find him, I'm gone. He is the one who idiotically believes this baby will be Niklaus' redemption, and now he's missing. Probably at the hands of Klaus himself, and you were foolish enough to believe that Elijah could convince Klaus to go up against Marcel, when everyone knows they have a history."
"Klaus sired him," Sophie rolled her eyes.
"You don't get it," Rebekah shook her head. "Klaus loved Marcel like a son. He was the bastard child of a man who saw him as nothing but a beast; Klaus saw himself in the child, and remembered how our father used to beat him. He brought him up in his own image, and without Elijah to stand between them all you have succeeded in doing is bringing together two lost souls. Who knows what they'll do."
Elena rubbed her upper arms and took a seat on the edge of a three tier fountain. It was cooler by the water, but the trickling sound was soothing.
Her eyes fluttered open when a warm jacket was draped over her shoulders.
"Thanks," she murmured.
"Are you sure you're alright darling?" Kol nodded and took a seat beside her on the fountain's edge.
"No," she could feel a hysterical laugh bubbling in her throat. "Elijah's missing and the witches in town can't use magic to help us find him, and even if they could they are willing to threaten the life of unborn children to get what they want from your family, and my hair has gotten so heavy it's giving me a migraine."
"I can do something about two of those things," he nodded. "Can I borrow your phone?"
"What's wrong with yours?" She pulled the device from her pocket with a frown.
"Nothing," he scrolled through her contacts, "I just didn't think Bonnie would answer a call from me." He located the number he wanted and pressed the phone to his ear; it connected on the fourth ring.
"Hey, 'Lena."
"It's Kol, actually," he smiled.
"What did you do to my friend?"
"Nothing, darling, she's right here, and she needs your help with a spell to find Elijah."
"Isn't there a witch down there for that?"
"None I'm willing to let within twenty feet of her," his eyes cut to Elena. "Are you up for a spell, Miss Bennett?" He smirked when she agreed. "Fantastic, I'll text you the requirements… no you don't need blood for this one… and you can call us back with a location."
"How do you know so much about magic?" Elena watched him type out a lengthy message on her phone complete with an incantation after hanging up.
"I was a witch, love," he sent off the text and offered her a hand up.
"Is that the second thing you can help with: the witches?" She cocked an eyebrow.
"I was actually going to help with the migraine," he smirked. "There are two viable solutions."
Elena stood and tilted her head.
"I can give you a little blood, or," he nodded to a string of brightly lit storefronts, "since that would only be a short term solution, you could get a haircut."
"That doesn't seem like a valuable use of time," she gave him a look.
"It's going to take Bonnie at least an hour to do the spell, so we've got a little time to kill."
"I must say," Klaus lifted his glass, "that this is a far cry from last night's party." He followed Marcel's eyes to a blonde in the far corner; her nose was buried in a book. "Ah," he couldn't stop his smirk, "in pursuit of the bartender from 'Rousseau's', I see."
"She's a work in progress," Marcel turned his attention back to his drink in an attempt to hide his smile.
"And yet here you are," Klaus grinned, "pining over her when you should be eating her for lunch." His eyes sought the bartender again. "She must be something special?"
Marcel ignored the bait and obvious fishing.
"Business first: the coroner called. He's got my number in case any dead tourists show up."
"That happen a lot around here?"
Marcel spun around on his stool and locked eyes with a young blonde woman. With the soft chatter and low background music he hadn't heard the vampire's approach.
"Hello, love," Klaus smirked, "join us for a drink?"
"I'd rather die of thirst, but thanks," she smiled sweetly. She turned her attention back to Klaus' drinking buddy. "The dead tourists?"
"I'm sorry," Marcel tilted his head, "but who are you?"
"How rude of me," Klaus smirked. "Marcellus this is Caroline. Caroline, sweetheart, this is Marcellus."
"Marcel's fine," he smiled. "Only Klaus and Elijah are allowed to call me Marcellus; just like I'm assuming he's the only one allowed to call you sweetheart."
Marcel took her hand and lifted it, placing a chaste kiss to her knuckles.
Klaus swallowed his growl, and narrowed his eyes.
"He's not allowed to call me sweetheart," Caroline crossed her arms. "You know, I'm actually looking for Elijah, have you seen him?"
She could have sworn she saw something flicker in Marcel's eyes, and she definitely heard his heart skip a beat; Elena had told her what that meant.
"Haven't seen him in a few weeks," he shrugged.
"Okay," Caroline nodded. Her eyes flickered to the bartender. "Humans in this town on vervain?"
She moved to an empty seat down the bar when Marcel shook his head and ordered a drink, compelling the bartender when he asked for her ID. She kept an ear on the conversation while sipping her drink. Apparently people took drunken tumbles into the Mississippi on a semi-regular basis; it happened enough that Marcel had a system in place for it.
She saw Klaus rise suddenly and watched him move to block the path of a blonde on her way out of the bar. Her shoulders tensed when he flashed the woman a charming smile.
"Excuse me, love." Klaus smiled at Cami. He tapped the book in her hands. "What's that you're studying?"
"Abnormal psychology," Cami cocked an eyebrow.
"Abnormal psychology," his smile turned to a conspiratorial grin. "Perhaps you could help me diagnose my friend over here." He nodded to Marcel behind him. "He's been a little bit depressed, can't keep his mind off a girl."
His eyes caught Caroline's narrow gaze for a moment before returning to Cami.
"He tells me she's a queen, fit for a king." He heard Caroline's scoff. "What do you think love? Should he cut his losses and move on?"
"Be a nice guy," Cami turned her eyes to Marcel and tilted her head. A small smile lifted the corners of her mouth. "Maybe the opportunity will present itself someday."
"How about tonight, nine o'clock?" Marcel jumped from his seat before she could leave and smiled, suddenly feeling rather flustered. "I'll meet you right here?" Hope flashed in his eyes.
"I'll take it under advisement," Cami smirked before leaving.
"Mm," Marcel watched her go, "harsh."
"Perhaps I've lost my touch," Klaus mused, "or you've lost yours."
"I'm pretty sure it's you," Marcel's eyes darted to Caroline before giving Klaus a pointed look.
"Crushed aconite flower," Hayley peeked up at the witch through her lashes.
"Wolfsbane?" Katie's brows rose. "That's a poison; you gonna kill a wolf?"
"Just a little one," Hayley's eyes darted down to her hand pressed to her abdomen.
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