Edited by amazing beta again - AryaTimodel :) x
Chapter Nine
It's been three weeks since the bombshell about Aya hit New Orleans. Klaus spent a lot of his time away from his siblings, locked up in the bedroom painting or bonding with Hope. Hayley was getting worried about Klaus's lack of plans to retaliate leaving his brothers and sisters to devising the plans.
She walked into the bedroom quietly, locking the door behind her and saw Klaus standing in front of his canvas painting a portrait of her. She approached him from behind and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder.
"Is this how you see me?" She asked quietly.
Klaus glanced at his Little Wolf and kissed her temple. "What? As a strong, beautiful and sexy hybrid?" He smirked.
Hayley sighed and her hands roamed across his chest, feeling his pecs. "Klaus, I'm really worried about you. Since we found about Aya bringing an influx of Strix members to town you haven't done anything. It's unlike you."
Klaus sighed and put his brush down in the can of water. He held onto one of Hayley's arm and pulled her towards the bed. He sat down pulling his fiancee down onto his lap. "You don't have to worry about me. I need you to worry about protecting Hope when our enemies come down on us."
"What about you?" Hayley wrapped her arms around his neck as his hands rested on her hips.
"I'll do everything in my power to make sure you and Hope are safe. As our family will do everything they can to make sure we are all safe."
A minute of silence passed, before Hayley spoke. "I just have a bad feeling that something is going to happen. I'm not sure what, but with Tristan and Aurora all quiet and the Strix having not attacked yet, there is something brewing."
"I agree with you, love. Paranoia may be my default setting as Elijah puts it, but our family have good reason to be. Especially when friends can so easily become foes." Hayley sighed looking at Klaus's daunting eyes – she was the only one who could read and understand Klaus so easily. The elder hybrid brought his hand up and caressed her cheek. "Sweetheart, you just need to worry about the wedding plans. You deserve to have the wedding of your dreams."
Hayley smiled softly and bent down to kiss his lips gently. "I love you."
"As I love you."
Freya, Elijah, and Kol were gathered in the library putting together all they knew of their knowledge of the Strix and its members, along with what they would do to ensure no harm fell upon them all. It was difficult considering Elijah had no contact with elder group of sirelings for decades. Accompanied with the fact that they have done virtually nothing but invade New Orleans and made it their current home base.
"Is this a usual Strix tactic. Announcing their arrival, put out a threat in disguise as a warning, and then.. do nothing..?"
Elijah turned to answer his eldest sibling, "The Strix enjoy anything that shows their superiority over all others. This silent treatment was meant to be put us at our wit's end, make us all as paranoid as Niklaus usually is, break us by unsettling our foundation, so that when they make their move we will be at our most vulnerable."
Rebekah then stormed in."I have news!" The three siblings looked at their sister with curiosity. "So Marcel's distance from us this past week, turns out that he was approached by Aya to join the Strix. He's now an official member which is an opportunity for us find out more information–"
"This isn't the first time Marcel has betrayed us for his own gain, can we trust him?" Kol interrupted.
Rebekah shot him a deadly glare. "Of course we can! He swore to me that he wouldn't betray us ever again, you bloody prick."
Elijah intervened to avoid the argument, "Rebekah, continue please."
"Right. Marcel has learned so far that he wasn't the first vampire outside of Elijah's sire-line to join the Strix. They're recruiting any vampire who has designs against the Mikaelsons." They want to break the Originals' sire-lines, unlink their lives from being attached to ours." There was only shell-shocked silence.
"Bloody hell! " Kol said angrily.
Elijah looked at Freya, lost for words – this was a bigger problem than they realised.
"What do we do?" Rebekah groaned and in that moment Stefan walked in smiling but immediately his smile dropped seeing his friends solemn looking faces. Katherine, who was right behind him, nearly collided with his back. She made no comment on the tense atmosphere, only going to stand next to her beloved.
Stefan went and sat down beside Rebekah. "Did we interrupt something?"
Elijah finally spoke. "We received some disturbing news – it seems that our enemies are planning to break the vampire sirelines, ensuring their survival if ever their Original sires perish."
Freya then, seemingly by random, recalled an old conversation in her mind. She quickly raced over to the table where her things were. Everyone watched her silently as she began adding things into a bowl, after which she pricked her finger, allowing a couple drops of her blood to spill into the bowl. She began chanting and soon saw some disturbing visions. She couldn't hear any words, but she could see clearly what she had been suspicious of for quite some time. When all she could see was the darkness behind her eyelids the blonde ended the spell.
"Camille isn't the only one who betrayed us... Davina is working with the de Martels and the Strix," Freya told them hoarsely.
Everyone in the room was shocked but Kol was furious. "That's absolute bullshit! Davina would never do that."
"It's true, Kol! I saw her with them." Freya looked at her youngest brother sympathetically.
Kol refused to believe it and was about to storm out of the library before Elijah stopped him so that they sister could explain accusation.
"How do you know this Freya?"
"I used a simpler version of Dahlia's Kenning spell on Lucien. I activated the link and while I couldn't hear anything, I could clearly see through his eyes. I saw Tristan and Aurora with Aya, Camille... and Davina too."
Shaking his head and making his way toward the door, "I need to talk to Davina. She wouldn't do this," Kol was then stopped by his younger sister.
"Kol!" Rebekah stood up and walked over to her brother, "She wouldn't do this to you.. but she would do it to Nik. She's not too fond of us and of course she hates Nik… there is no secret about that, even if they've been somewhat civil for the past year for your sake."
"Rebekah is right." Freya sighed as she stood up, "Nonetheless, all of us need to act like everything is normal or Davina will know that we've discovered and we can't raise suspicion. Plus this an advantage that we have, the Strix don't know that we know about Davina."
"So what then are we going to do? Nik hasn't been sodding helpful." Kol grumbled, sitting on the closest chair looking disheveled, still in denial that Davina would betray his family.
Over the next few hours, everyone in the room began planning step by step on how to stop their enemies from trying to break the sirelines, while ensuring the protection of the youngest member of their family. Klaus and Hayley were still not seen in the public areas of the Compound as of that evening, but occasionally Rebekah would use her vampire hearing to check if everything was alright, and let's just say… she will never interrupt their private time together again.
Katherine looked toward the Mikaelson sisters, voicing her worrisome question so that they could have some certainty. "Are you two absolutely sure we can trust Lucien and Marcel to not betray us? We don't need this right now and Klaus and Hayley certainly do not need it either."
"What don't we need?" Klaus walked into the room holding Hayley's hand.
"We have some disturbing news, Brother. We've learned what the Strix is planning." Klaus released Hayley's hand and went to pour himself a scotch. Elijah immediately informed Hayley and Klaus of everything they now knew including Marcel's new Strix membership and the betrayal of Davina.
"This is an outrage!" Klaus roared causing Hayley to flinch. "You're telling me that not only Camille but Davina has betrayed us to help our enemies?"
"Yes," Freya said resolutely.
"How can I protect Hope and the rest of our family when our enemies are getting stronger by the day, taking all of our allies as their own?" Klaus ran his hand through his hair and walked over to the side bar to pour himself another glass of scotch.
Elijah walked up behind him and rested a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You are not alone, Brother. You have us. We are the Original family, we remain together and fight for one another, no matter who the enemy is."
Hayley once again realised that nothing will ever be peaceful for her family. It was enemy after enemy, nightmare after nightmare… more deaths, more blood and the never-ending fear for her child. She rubbed her forehead in frustration. While she couldn't care less about Cami's betrayal, it hit her hard that Davina had chosen to oppose them.
Kol felt the same hurt and when he noticed Hayley's glassy eyes the Original went to his soon-to-be sister-in-law and partially embraced her
"I can't believe that Davina would do this to us." Hayley sniffled leaning against Kol's side.
"Neither can I, Hayley."
The hurt was then shifting to anger. The young hybrid broke from Kol and nearly stomped to the kitchen where she would take on her nonviolent form of therapy – cooking. Opening the fridge and perusing its contents, she was able to push the burning betrayal of who she thought were her friends to the dark corners of her mind.
She got all the ingredients she needed to make Cubano sandwiches and had chicken to make chicken schnitzel. She was left in her own world for now willing her heart to follow her brain into numbing neutrality.
Klaus on the other hand was choosing to remain furious. He knew that he should never have trusted Davina in the first place, but everyone kept telling him that she was their ally, that she would never hurt any of them. He saw how devastated his brother and Hayley were when Kol was comforting her, feeding his rage even more and causing him to voice her tempestuous thoughts.
"I knew we couldn't trust Davina. You lot pushed me to accept her, assuring that she could help us defend against our enemies, that she wouldn't betray us and yet I was the one proven right! Now we've lost two of our allies and potentially more if Lucien is truly working with Aurora and Tristan and if they sway Marcel. If our so called loved ones can so easily turned against us how can we trust any of them?" Klaus shot a mocking smile toward the ones in the room with no blood relation to him. "Stefan, Katerina, feeling a bit treacherous these days? Better to expose yourselves now rather than later."
Stefan could only sit shocked at the direct allegation. Katherine narrowed her dark, feline eyes, "You know I would be offended if anyone else but you asked."
"Niklaus be reasonable-"
"Oh, I am Elijah, since Camille and Davina swore their love and devotion as easily and effortlessly as crushing it why wouldn't any others who are not one of us do the same?"
Stefan then spoke up for himself, "Klaus, I am on your side because it's the right side to be on, okay? I have no interest in the Strix or seeing innocent people get hurt."
Rebekah inputted, "Which we can all be assured that all our currents allies will do the same. Enough of this scouring for enemies where there are none, Nik. Freya and Kol will be putting extra protective spells on yours and Hope's rooms while Marcel is sending his vampires to protect the outside of the Compound, we'll make our home a fortress. No one is going to get to Hope or Hayley or any of us for that matter."
Klaus sighed heavily, seeing that his siblings had things under control... for now. "The wedding will still take place next week. After which we will deal with these self righteous sirelings and traitors who dared cross the Mikaelsons."
There was silence in the Compound, all they could hear was the sound of Hayley hammering a meat mallet on pieces of chicken breasts
Ooh! We're getting the climax of the story! This story was a little filler/warm up to the big event! Yes! The Wedding is the next chapter in honor of making 10 chapters! Still most likely only writing 20 chapters! Thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with this fic! I know I haven't finished it and it's been a really long time since I last updated, but please be patient and ye shall receive :) hehe.
Thank you to everyone who has commented/followed & favourited my story! It means so much to me!
xoxo Caz
xoxo Caz