Disclaimer: Don't own anything you recognise

Thanks for all the reviews! Thanks QueenofGoodbyes for the nickname suggestions!

LifePrice1412: I love the Teen Wolf jokes, and I've been re-watching so they're going to pop up every so often.

mrs. morgan 35: 'shocked face' The only way I see Maya dressing like that is if Caroline forces her…or Damon, Damon would probably get her the outfit as a joke.

Siegrain-Black: Their sibling relationship is definitely toxic, 1000 years together the Mikaelsons are the poster children for 'familiarity breeds contempt' but I feel like in order for the characters to maintain their plot armour, the writers changed the way the characters would react based on their personalities. And as much as Kol believed that he was left out of 'Always and Forever' when they were on the run from their father, Klaus did everything he could to keep his family safe, even when his methods were absolutely terrible, (I'll be the first to admit it, putting your siblings into forced time outs is not ok), Klaus loved his family and he cared when Kol died, we all saw it in his initial reaction to his brother's death. But this is also fiction, I didn't like the way the family was portrayed sometimes, so I'm changing it to suit me.

WiseGirlDivergence46: I hope those are good almost tears!

TheQueenofGoodbyes: I was thinking it was a stupid idea from Klaus, but she's getting tutelage from Kol, and Maya needs to be confident in her ability to protect herself from other witches, and she needs to be able to cloak her magical signature otherwise she'll spend her life looking over her shoulder. Plus Nik does not trust Finn, at all, and I don't blame him, Finn would totally steal Freya away given the chance. Klaus can't admit it, but he trusts Maya in a way that he doesn't trust his siblings, because she's shown him how loyal she can be, not to him, but to Enzo and Damon, she's shown him that she won't lie to him, and he was there when they both learned about who she really was, so there's a connection there that's causing him to lean on her, in a way that he wouldn't have done ordinarily. Also I think he's hoping that if she goes to New Orleans she'll trigger something that will tell him why she didn't want him in New Orleans, because she's made a point to steer him away from there twice now.

Guest16: Thanks, Kol and Maya will bond over magic, but Kol is definitely going to have a different bestie.

Blu3b3rryT3a: Klaus isn't going to let her live it down, especially when she gets older! But it ades sense that Klaus was the only one she could talk to without feeling guilty for feeling guilty, you know, cus he's the one that actually has the experience of hurting his family, repeatedly, I have to believe that the first few times Klaus daggered his siblings he felt bad about it. Jenna needs some more love, this summer's going to be hard for her. But FINALLY Grayson's dead!

sammyleann: Thanks, I think they're fun moments especially because we haven't hit season 1 yet.

Thatonegirlwhoyoudontknow: Thank you!

JessicaOnePiece: Thanks I'll keep them coming!

"Did you get my latest care package darling?" Kol asked, kicking his feet up on his desk, after he'd taken over the research on his brother's curse, he'd demanded a place in the penthouse of his own to work. Elijah had his library, Rebekah had practically a whole floor just to herself and her clothes, and Finn had a private garden on the roof where he could escape the rest of the family, so Kol didn't see why he shouldn't have a space for himself as well.

"I did, I cast the glamour over myself, and I think that it worked, Damon's taking me to meet an old witch friend of his in Georgia to test it out, if it doesn't work then he said he'd kill her."

"Good, have you had a chance to go through the linking spells?"

"I looked through them, I have an idea of what I could do, but you'll need to show me how to read the spell that's on Freya when we get to New York," Maya replied.

"You're not planning on waking my sister while you're in New Orleans?"

"I don't think that's a great idea, I mean she won't know me, I'm not family, and she's been asleep for almost a century, I feel like getting her on a plane would be an issue. Plus the spell on Freya is so contrived that I'm sure that I'll have to do more than just an unlinking."

"Walk me through your thought process darling," when it came to magic, Kol was very serious, he liked to have fun, he liked to flirt, but he was actually trying to teach Maya about something that he loved, and he wanted to ensure that she received the best education, a Mikaelson never did things by half measures.

By now, Maya was used to this from Kol, in addition to her bi-weekly check ins with Klaus, Kol had wanted to speak with her at least three times a week, and have at least one video call in order for him to see the progress that she was making with magic. He'd sent her grimoires, while Klaus had sent her old magical objects that she could siphon in order to keep practicing. "The sleeping curse is on both Freya and the woman that she's running from, it was a way for them to cheat mortality, and they're linked together. If I break the link then whoever's on the other end of the spell wakes up, if I just wake Freya, again, the person linked to her wakes up. I don't think the answer is in breaking the link."

"What's the answer then?"

"I think that we need a way to transfer the link, temporarily to another person, maybe link Freya to one of your siblings in order to ensure that both ends of the spell are tethered to something."

"And how would you do that?"

Maya rubbed her hands over her face and groaned, magical theory made her head hurt, there were so many rules and so many different types of magic that could be used, "I'm not sure, I feel like if I used anything close to the magic that has cursed Freya it would unintentionally alert whoever's on the other end. I almost think that I should use a magic that I'm not used to, I mean Freya had to have gone to New Orleans for more than just your family, it's a city of magic." She paused for a moment, she was missing something, what was she missing, "She went there to try to break the spell, or to hide? No not hide, to mask! Kol what about Voodoo? Could I turn another person, or vampire into a Voodoo Doll? Trick the magic into thinking that it's still connected to Freya?"

Kol gave her a genuine smile, Maya was an excellent student, she could follow as well as lead, and though her way of dealing with problems wasn't like his own, she rotated the problem instead of attacking it head on like he did, he recognised that there was always more than one way to solve an issue, "That's excellent thinking darling, if you can get a read on the magic of her link, there's a good chance that we could trick it into connecting with someone else, preferably a vampire so that we don't have to worry about keeping the person fed."

"I don't know much about Voodoo, in fact I know next to nothing about it."

"I can teach you what I know, and the rest you can learn while you're in New Orleans, once you've got Freya out of her prison, then you can spend some time there a learn from the New Orleans witches, at least as long as that glamour works. Call me as soon as you've tested it out."

"I will, thanks Kol."

Outside of Kol's workroom, Finn stood frozen, he hadn't meant to eavesdrop on his younger brother, he'd just been passing by, but then Kol had said Freya's name, referred to her as his sister, suggested that she was still alive and cursed somewhere in New Orleans. His gut instinct was to rush in and force answers from his brother, but he knew that Kol would never give anything up to him, and he was more likely to receive a dagger through his heart than answers. His only option was to spy on his younger siblings, Niklaus and Kol had been working together on something in secret, was this it? He'd have to find out, and find out soon, because it sounded like someone was going to collect his sister and wake her up in a world that moved far ahead of what she could understand.

It was May when Caroline came marching into the Sommers' home, determination written all over her face, (Jenna had finally caved and given Caroline her own key, it was better than the heart attacks she was getting every time Caroline snuck in). She burst into Maya's room, startling the girl so badly that she tipped her chair backwards and hit the floor with a grunt, she'd been video chatting with Klaus, leaning back in her chair, keeping it balanced on two legs. "Oof!" she groaned, "Damn it Caroline!"

"Get off the phone, we need to talk!" Caroline demanded.

Maya glanced at her phone, Klaus was on the other end looking very amused, "Nik, I'm going to have to call you back later!" she hung up before he could comment and pulled herself up from the floor. "What has got you looking like a woman on a mission?" she rubbed her shoulder with a scowl, that fall had hurt.

"You are spending the summer in New Orleans and New York!"

"I already told you this Sunshine, what's the deal?" she threw herself onto her bed, relaxing into it.

"You're spending the whole summer without me!" Caroline looked petulant, in the weeks after her father had left Caroline had wallowed, blamed herself, blamed her mom, and cried more than she had since she was a kid. But eventually she'd focussed on her projects and committees with such an intensity that she'd already taken several of them from the older girls who usually ran them. Sheriff Forbes had been very similar and thrown herself into her own work, she was barely home, and Caroline ended up having family dinner with Maya and Jenna more often than not.

"Caroline we've talked about this, if I could take you with me I would."

"Well why can't you take me with you?!"

"Because your mother is not going to let her 15 year-old daughter go on a vacation with me to two different party cities over the summer, especially because mom's not going with me, it's just me and Damon and Enzo."

"You can't leave me here alone Maya! Mom's thrown herself so far into her work, she didn't come home for three days last week, three days! Please don't leave me alone here! You promised you wouldn't." That was a low blow and she knew it, Maya had promised never to leave Caroline, and Caroline was not about using that promise to get what she wanted.

"The only way you're mom's going to agree to this is if you can get her off her vervain and then one of the guys can compel her, tell her that they can be trusted and that you deserve to have a fun vacation. That she wouldn't spend the summer worrying about you getting into trouble at home just because you're bored. Is that what you want?"

"That's the only way she'll agree?" Caroline deflated, she wasn't sure how she felt about compulsion, she'd never experienced it and she wasn't sure about taking someone's free will away.

"What do you think Care? You know your mom better than I do."

Caroline frowned, "That's all they'd compel her to do? Trust me to go on vacation with you guys?"

"I can make sure of it, but you'd have to be sure that it's what you want."

"Let me think about it," she turned on her heel and started walking out of the room, "Hurry up and get dressed, I'm not letting you miss a single cheer practice!"

Rolling her eyes, Maya moved to her closet and pulled out her uniform, there had to be a way to get out of being on the cheer team without hurting Caroline's feelings, because she wasn't sure just how much she could take.

July of 2008 had Maya, Damon and Enzo stepping out of the Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans (Maya had managed to convince Caroline to meet them in New York, because she didn't want to risk her). After that it was only a half hour drive to the French Quarter, Enzo had bought an apartment there when he found out that the Quarter didn't just belong to witches, but also vampires. He'd put it in Maya's name, so that no vampire would be able to get in, Maya had just been excited to own real estate and of course had a little fun with keeping Damon out of the apartment, he'd called her a 'little magic sucker,' so she'd messed with him a little, finally giving in when he'd given Enzo his puppy dog eyes.

"What are we doing first?" Damon asked, New Orleans was a vampire city and as much as he was here for Maya's protection, he wanted to have some fun of his own.

"First I have to go and present myself to the Regent here," Maya replied, Kol had given her a crash course in how the witches in New Orleans worked, and the Regent of the Nine Covens needed to accept her in the city so that she didn't have to worry about being attacked by magic users while she was on guard from all the vampires in the city.

"Who?"

"The Regent of the Nine Covens, she's in charge of all of the witches in New Orleans, and she's the only one who can open the cottage for me to get Freya out, so pissing her off isn't an option."

"You're not going alone," Enzo stated.

"Enzo-"

"No," he shook his head, "There are vampires and witches everywhere, we may not be able to go into the witch's house with you, but we're going to be with you up until that point."

"Enzo I don't want to piss the Regent off, we need her to open that cottage."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you just siphon the spell keeping it locked?" Damon asked.

"I could, but the Dowager Fauline Cottage, it's a combination of witch prison and sanatorium, if I siphon the spell, it's gone for good, and then I'm responsible for letting a bunch of crazy slash homicidal witches out into the world! I don't want that on my conscience, plus it'll really piss off the witches here, and I'm not good enough to take on nine covens."

"I guess you have a point there Sabrina," Damon conceded, he didn't really care about people getting hurt, but keeping the peace in the Quarter was probably a good idea. Especially considering his last conversation with Nik had told him how much the Original loved this city.

"The Regent hate's vampires," Maya said.

"I don't care," Enzo said.

"But-"

"No, you are fifteen, your mother put me in charge and I promised that I wouldn't let you out of my sight."

"Also Nik threatened to tear out our spines if we let anything happen to you," Damon pointed out unhelpfully.

Maya let out a frustrated growl, "The Regent hates vampires! I need to make sure she doesn't think of me as a threat! And we need to get Freya out of that crazy house before one of you," she looked pointedly at Damon, "pisses off whoever's in charge of the vampires in the city."

"Why are looking at me?" Damon protested, "Enzo pisses people off too!"

"Not the way that you do," Enzo muttered, amused.

"Hey!"

"Guys! There's no discussion here, you can walk me to the Cauldron, but then you're leaving, you can wait for me to be done, and I will call immediately to come and get me."

"If anything happens-"

"I swear Enzo, I'll be careful, I'll be selfish, okay?" she said, referring to the conversation that they'd had when she'd been in the hospital. "I promise."

Enzo nodded, albeit reluctantly, he knew that he was going to have to allow her to do this, she needed this, and Nik would probably kill him if he hindered her, after all, they were here to pick up his sister. "Fine."

The next morning, Maya, Damon and Enzo were out on the streets of the French Quarter, she noticed one or two vampires out, they weren't watching her specifically, but looked as though they were keeping an eye on things. As they'd left the apartment, she'd found a note attached to the door, she must have brushed up against a witch on her way into the Quarter and they'd let the Regent know that she was here. The note had an address and time, and Maya was going to make sure that she wasn't late, she'd siphoned plenty of magic from Damon and Enzo, her necklace was topped up with magic, and she'd re-charged Kol's glamour spell, because there was no way she was going to get out of her meeting with the Regent without coming into contact with her.

Standing outside the Regent's house she took a couple of deep breaths, "Don't freak out," she muttered, before she steeled herself and strode up to the door, ringing the bell, she waited to be invited in. The doors opened and a woman wordlessly stepped back, inviting her inside. Swallowing, Maya stepped inside the Regent's home, she repressed a gasp as she felt the power in the home, she knew that the Regent was powerful, but this was the first time she'd felt another witch's power before. "I believe Regent LaRue is expecting me," she said to the woman, who nodded.

"She is, follow me."

They walked into a warm living room, the Regent was sat in a chair with a blanket over her lap, there was a tea set out in front of her. Maya stood in front of the woman, not sitting until she'd been directed to, "Regent LaRue," Maya inclined her head in greeting, she needed to be respectful, but not to the point where it looked like she was kissing arse.

"Take a seat," the Regent gestured, and Maya sat down, "Tea?"

"No thank you," Kol had told her not to drink anything that had been presented to her by the Regent, it may be seen as disrespectful, but she couldn't afford to be potentially drugged.

"I see you received my invitation."

"I did, considering I only got into town last night, I assume one of your witches spotted me in the Quarter."

"I like to be well informed when outsiders come to my city, Miss Sommers."

"I know," Maya replied, not showing how startled she was the Josephine LaRue knew her name, "That's why I came."

"I normally don't concern myself with witches that are passing through, but I have been told that you are keeping the company of two vampires."

"I don't really see how that's any of your business," Maya said a little sharply, the protectiveness she felt for her vampires coming through.

"Witches are servants of nature, vampires are abominations, it makes me very suspicious of your reasons for being here. Witches do not work for vampires unless they are dabbling in the dark."

Maya fought the urge to throw the tea in Josephine's face, that would not go well for her when she was surrounded by witches, "I don't work for vampires, I'm here on behalf of my coven, those vampires are my family regardless of what you believe them to be. There's nothing that they wouldn't do to keep me safe, and this city isn't exactly safe."

Regent LaRue frowned, a witch referring to vampires as family was just as abhorrent as the vampires themselves. "I find it hard to believe that a coven would send someone so young to New Orleans, especially to ask for something from the Regent."

"Perhaps I'm the only one who can give the Regent something in return for what I need."

"And what is it you need?"

"100 years ago a witch belonging to my coven was cursed to sleep, and then hidden away in the Dowager Fauline Cottage, so that we could not get to her. She's still there, and I've been told that you have the power to open the Cottage and let me get her out."

Josephine scoffed, "There's no one in that Cottage that doesn't belong there." She would have sensed that if there was someone in there if they weren't meant to be.

"My vampires are over 100 years-old, they know what they saw, and my coven can feel our sister's magic still alive, locked in this city, I'm just the first that's able to offer you something in return to free her."

"What could you possibly offer me, that I cannot get for myself?" despite her age, Josephine's power was still thrumming through her veins.

"I can remove the hex," Maya said, as a girl Josephine LaRue had been a violinist, and she was going to run away with a musician, her mother had hexed her hands so that they became gnarled with arthritis, meaning that she could never play her violin again.

"No one has been able to reverse the hex on my hands, you expect me to believe that a child can?"

"I said remove, not reverse." Kol had been teaching her how to differentiate between different forms of magic, spells felt different to curses, both felt differently to hexes and all three felt different to a witch's intrinsic magic. Unfortunately, the spell that had been cast on the Originals was considered a curse, and she couldn't differentiate between the immortality curse and the hybrid curse placed on Klaus, she couldn't siphon him without fear of removing the wrong thing.

"Prove it."

Maya laughed, "You want me to remove your hex without getting an agreement from you on what I want? That's not happening."

"Remove the hex on one hand, allow me to see that you truly have the capability of doing what you say, then I will think about your request." Josephine didn't want to jump at what Maya was offering, many witches had come to her with similar offers, fixing her hands for power, but hexes typically could not be broken, and her mother had always been very apt at them.

Maya gave it some thought, she could remove the magic on Regent LaRue's hands, it was risky, but she knew it was the only thing that would convince the Regent to give her access to the Cottage. "May I have a pen and paper?" she asked and one of Josephine's girls appeared at her side and handed them to her. Maya wrote down a few things, she needed to make it look like an actual spell, and when she worked on one of Josephine's hands she had to make sure the actual siphoning was hidden, "I'll need these ingredients, an opaque bowl and a black towel." She turned to look at Josephine, "When she comes back, I want your people gone, I'm not letting them see what I do, I'm not giving them the chance to replicate my work on your other hand."

Elijah left his library to find his brothers, Niklaus and Kol were up to something, he wondered at how quickly things had changed, 10 months ago he and Kol had both been suspicious of Niklaus and now both of his younger brothers were conspiring together, whispering behind closed doors, meetings in magically silenced studies and studios. Niklaus had even given Kol a place to work on his magic obsession, and he'd had never done that before. What had Kol discovered? What was Niklaus hiding from the rest of his siblings? And how had he convinced Kol to keep it quiet? Elijah decided he would first speak with Finn, his older brother was so quiet when Sage was not there that he was easy to forget, it was probable that he'd heard something without even trying to eavesdrop. If Finn didn't know anything then he would enlist Rebekah's help, his sister had also been left out of whatever Niklaus was planning, and that was unusual enough that it wouldn't take much to persuade her to snoop through their brother's things.

First Elijah went to Finn's room, he wasn't there, which was not unusual, he enjoyed spending most of his time in the garden that had been built for him. But his brother wasn't there either, tilting his head in thought he pulled out his phone and called Finn. Finn's phone was ringing upstairs, from his room, maybe he'd just forgotten it? Finn had obviously had the hardest time adjusting to the modern world and had not taken to keeping his phone with him all the time. Elijah called Sage next, but was shocked to find that her phone was also ringing upstairs, she had no reason to leave her phone here. Where was his brother?

"Niklaus!" he called, "Kol! Rebekah!" he whooshed upstairs and met his siblings on the landing of the second floor.

"Elijah?" Rebekah asked, "What is it?"

"Finn's missing," he said.

Kol rolled his eyes, "Oh please, he's probably just out with Sage, you know he loves spending time away from us."

"He left his phone here, and so did Sage, I can see Finn forgetting his phone, but Sage wouldn't, I demanded that she remain contactable at all times when she is out with our brother, because I know that he's been having difficulties." Elijah replied.

Kol whooshed into Finn's room and came out with both phones, unlocking his brother's phone he browsed through the recent search history and spotted something he knew would not make Nik happy, "Well there's nothing of use in there," he shrugged, shoving the phone into his pocket, "And I don't know Sage's passcode."

"How do you know Finn's code?" Klaus asked annoyed, reminding himself that he needed to change his own, again.

"His code's 1234, he's not great with technology," all the new tech had been Kol's favourite thing since he'd woken up, the information available at his fingertips was astonishing.

"Elijah, Finn's favourite place to eat is 'Sofia's Wine Bar and Café' go and check there first, Rebekah, Finn loves the 'Conservatory Garden' in Central Park, see if he's there, he also enjoys the 'Glass Waterfall Tunnel', the 'Pomander Walk', and the 'Old City Hall Subway Station'. Kol, try and break into Sage's phone, I will check in a witch about doing a locator spell if we still can't find him." Klaus said and took in their looks of astonishment that all three were giving him, "What?"

"How do you know all those things about Finn?" Rebekah asked, from what she'd seen, Nik had barely paid attention to Finn, she hadn't even seen them say more than a few words at a time to each other. Kol and Elijah wanted to know as well.

"I know where all of your favourite spots are in the city," when they still didn't say anything he rolled is eyes, "This isn't surprising, I like to know things! Go find our brother!" he spun on his heel and headed for his study.

The siblings split up and when he was sure that they had gone, Kol followed Klaus into his study, taking out Finn's phone he tossed it to his brother, "Take a look at what Finn searched last."

Unlocking the device, Klaus's eyes hardened as he looked at the search history, "Did you tell him?"

"Haven't said a word to him," Kol shook his head, "if I had it wouldn't have made any difference because we still need a witch for the spell."

"Bloody hell," Klaus groaned, he knew things were running too smoothly for him, "Keep our brother and sister busy, I'll call Damon and Enzo, warn them to be on the lookout for Finn and his lover."

Maya had mixed the ingredients in the bowl, creating a dark, almost black concoction, she'd mixed several herbs that promoted healing along with some potions that were meant to purify, "Place your left hand in there," she said, daring Josephine to refuse.

The Regent looked her suspiciously, but complied, if she refused she would look weak, Maya rolled up her sleeve gripped Josephine's hand in hers in the concoction, she took the towel with her other hand and covered the bowl and their hands. If the concoction wasn't dark enough to hide her siphoning, then the towel certainly would. Closing her eyes she stretched out her senses, she could feel when she brushed up against Josephine's natural magic and then delved deeper to find the hex. Closing her eyes she felt out the hex, and could feel that it was intertwined with Josephine's magic, it was no wonder no one could fix it, the hex was feeding off of the Regent's own magic, so any time someone tried to heal her hands, they didn't delve deeper to clear out the hex, it was like mould, if you didn't get rid of all of it, it would just grow back.

Opening her eyes, she looked at Josephine, "The hex is completely intertwined with your magic, I can heal your hand temporarily, remove the hex from this hand and put up a temporary block, but it can't be removed unless I remove the whole thing, and I'm not willing to do that without getting what I want. So, what would you like me to do?"

Josephine regarded her with critical eye, the girl didn't seem as though she was lying, and no one had discovered the truth behind the hex on their own, Josephine knew of course, she'd known for decades, but for her the only way to remove the hex was to give up her magic, and that was something that she had never been willing to do. "Heal my hand," she said, "Show me what you can do."

Maya nodded and closed her eyes again, as she started to siphon the hex from one hand she began to chant, "Spirituum hei obstructionum." Repeating the words over and over she could feel her spell take effect.

Josephine felt her fingers unfurl, straightening for the first time in five decades, the pain that had always been associated with the arthritis disappeared as well, the Regent was so overwhelmed she almost missed the feel of Maya's magic, the magic she'd used on her felt exactly like her mother's, felt exactly like her own, how was she doing this? Maya opened her eyes, and removed her hand from the bowl, wiping it on the towel, before handing it to the Regent to clean off her own. Josephine stared at her hand in wonder, it had been such a long time since she'd been able to move her fingers without any pain.

"That'll last a week at the most, but it'll probably be less, given the strength of the hex," Maya said, calling attention to herself, "If that's all, I'm going to go and explore the Quarter, you know where I'm staying when you want me to fix your hands permanently." Josephine nodded and Maya left before the old woman could change her mind.

Josephine watched her leave before summoning a couple of the girls that stayed with her, "I need all the files of everyone in the Fauline Cottage, I want to make sure that there's no body in there that shouldn't be." One of the girls nodded and left, Josephine turned to the other girl, "You, find out everything you can about Miss Sommers, everything."

It had been two days since her meeting with the Regent, Maya was fairly certain that she'd be contacted soon, but until then, she wanted to enjoy some time in the Quarter, she had the feeling that the next time she would be there, the city would not be so peaceful. "Come on Damon!" Maya whined, he was taking forever, choosing to flirt with a couple of girls out on the streets, "I want beignets and you promised you'd get me some!" Enzo was scouting the Cauldron; he didn't trust the witches in the city and wanted to make sure that none of them knew what Maya was.

"I'll be with you in a minute little sister!" Damon called back, not wanting to let her ruin his chance with the two local hotties.

Maya scowled, Damon was such a horn-dog! Turning away from him she marched around the corner, google said that there was a pretty good café down the street, she wouldn't be far and it would give Damon the kick up the pants he needed, he was supposed to be keeping her safe! Huffing she wasn't paying attention and crashed into someone, "Oof!" she gasped and fell to the floor, the other person fell too. Pushing herself up she saw that she'd crashed into a young girl, "Oh my God I'm so sorry!" she said, pulling the girl up, "I completely wasn't watching where I was going!"

"It's okay," the girl said smiling.

Maya's eyes widened when she saw who it was, she knew this girl, "Seriously that was totally my bad, my brother pissed me off and I should have been paying attention!"

The girl laughed, "It's okay, I promise, I'm not hurt, there's no harm done, umm are you new to the Quarter?" she asked.

"I'm just visiting," Maya confirmed, "I was hoping to get some beignets, but my brother would rather flirt than keep his promise!"

"I know a great little place if you'd like some company," the girl said, "I'm Davina by the way."

Maya smiled, "Maya," she held out her hand and Davina grasped it, both girls connecting to each other's magic and immediately felt at ease with one another, "It's nice to meet a witch my age," Maya said, "We don't have them in my town."

"I'd love to hear about that, I've never been out of the Quarter," Davina smiled, "Come on, if we're quick, we'll beat the lunch rush!"

It took 15 minutes for Damon to realise that Maya was gone and another 45 minutes before he'd found her, when he had she'd been saying goodbye to Davina, giving the younger girl a hug so he hung back until she was gone. "What the hell Maya?! You can't just run off like that! Enzo will kill me!"

"I didn't run off Damon!" she hissed back, "You wanted to flirt, and I wanted beignets! I was only two streets away anyway!"

"This city is full of vampires and witches, what did you not understand about not going anywhere without us?!"

"The part that said I also had to watch you try to get two girls into bed in broad daylight!"

"Oh you little-"

"What are we arguing about?" Enzo said appearing from nowhere.

"Nothing!" Damon and Maya chorused, looking entirely too innocent.

"Uh-huh," Enzo said, unconvinced, "I'm not going to push, there's a couple of shops in the Cauldron that you can go to and pick up supplies."

"Great!" She said, grabbing Enzo's hand and tugging him away from Damon before the older vampire decided he wanted to rat her out.

/

Maya and Enzo had just come out of one of the a witchcraft stores with supplies from Kol's list, the Original was going to go over the spell work with her and help prepare what she needed to unlink and wake Freya. "Where's Damon?" she asked, looking around, they'd left him outside for 10 minutes.

Tilting his head, Enzo picked up the sounds of feeding, "Getting lunch," he said motioning to an alleyway.

"Of course he is," Maya rolled her eyes, "Come on, there's another store I want to go to before we get food."

"Sure thing love," Enzo smiled, she was practically vibrating with energy, it had to be because she was surrounded by magic. He made a move to leave, but froze, stopping Maya from going anywhere, he could hear Damon, and it didn't sound good.

/

Damon was feeding from a girl in an alleyway in the Cauldron, Maya and Enzo were shopping and he didn't really have an interest in witch stuff, the Cauldron was pretty busy so he didn't hear the person come up behind him before he was yanked away from the girl and tossed into the opposite wall. Landing on his feet, Damon growled and lunged for his attacker, only to be stopped by two vampires who grabbed both of his arms.

"You know there are rules in Quarter," a dark-skinned vampire said, "And one of the major ones, is that we don't feed from the locals."

Damon sneered at the vampire, "Well I'm just passing through, and it's not like she's dead," the girl had been led away by another vampire, "So I think you should let me go."

The vampire laughed, "That's not how it works here friend, my boys have been keeping and eye on you and your friend, where'd you get your rings from?"

Damon smirked, he'd noticed that most of the vampires in the Quarter didn't have daylight rings, "Well there are witches outside of New Orleans, and not all of them hate vampires."

"Well in my city, the only daylight rings allowed are the ones that I allow," he motioned to one of the vampires and the guy tried to remove Damon's ring, there was enough shadow in the alleyway that he wouldn't burst into flames, but the vampire yelped in pain when he tried to take it.

Damon laughed, "Like I said, there are plenty of witches outside this place, and I'm pretty sure that my witch is better than your witch." Damon was stalling for time.

The vampire in front of him frowned, his witches had never mentioned that there was a way to prevent the removal of their rings. He made to move closer, when both of his guys were ripped from Damon. "Looks like you got yourself in some trouble mate," Enzo said, offering a feral grin to the vampires that had surrounded them.

"Well you know me," Damon shrugged, "I never like to be bored."

Both of them took quick stock of their situation, there were too many vampires for them too take on in one go, they'd have to take out the two at the head of the alley and then make for the tourists, this vampire clearly didn't want to make a scene in front of the humans. "I got two," Enzo said.

"I can get three," Damon replied cockily.

The vampire in front of them glared, "You two aren't going anywhere, you broke my rules."

"And why the hell should we care?" Damon scoffed, realising that a few more vampires had joined the ones behind them.

"Because this is my city and feeding on the locals is punishable by a year in the Garden."

Enzo didn't know what the Garden was, but it didn't sound good. "We'll have to pass," Enzo said, edging closer to Damon, they would need to run fast.

"Not optional," the vampire said, the ones surrounding them tensed, as though waiting for a signal from the lead, but the only thing that happened was that two of them were launched to the other end of the alley.

Maya stalked into the alley, she was pissed, Enzo had told her to stay where she was and whooshed off like she couldn't help, another two vampires charged at her and she waved her hand "Ossox!" both vampire fell to the ground with their necks snapped. Her eyes locked with the vampire in charge and she braced herself as information flooded her mind, "Marcel," she said, she didn't know how she felt about the vampire that Klaus called his son, on the one hand, Rebekah and Klaus did love him, but on the other, he'd betrayed Klaus and stolen his city right from under him.

"Well at least someone has heard of me," Marcel smiled, but the look in his eyes was hard, "This isn't your fight witch."

"Well you're messing with my vampires, so I'd say it is." If Marcel tried to hurt Enzo, she'd kill him, future problems be damned.

"Your vampires broke the rules," Marcel replied, the witch looked young, she was definitely a kid, which left him with very few options, he wouldn't let anyone in the Quarter kill kids.

"I don't care," Maya said, "We're here on witch business, they're not going to kill anyone and you're going to leave us the hell alone."

"And if we don't?" Marcel cocked his head to the side, this kid was confident, she must be powerful.

"You come after me and mine, I will rend flesh from bone!" she had a fire in her eyes, she wasn't joking, she would peel their flesh from their bones if any of them tried anything.

Marcel scowled at her, she'd threatened them, he couldn't let her get away with that, he motioned at the guys on the side and three of them whooshed forward to try and grab her. Waving her hand, the three vampires froze and Maya whispered one word, she was going to have to prove to Marcel that she meant business, "Cortices," the vampire in the middle of the three screamed as the flesh on his arm started peeling away. Enzo wrapped an arm around Maya's waist, ready to steal her away at a moment's notice.

"STOP!" Marcel yelled, seeing what she was capable of, she wasn't even breaking a sweat.

Maya flicked her hand and the three vampires flew backwards into some of the others, "I told you what I would do if you tried anything, next time I won't stop."

"You don't get to come into my city and break the rules and make threats, that's not how this works!" Marcel moved forward, his guys not being deterred by what they had seen, mostly because of the loyalty they had for Marcel.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was fairly certain that this city belonged to my family," a voice said from the opening of the alley, everyone turned to see who was there, a man and a woman.

Maya let out a quiet gasp, "Finn," she breathed.

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