2-01

Dad let out a long breath, his eyes closing before he moved to rub away the lines that had suddenly dominated it. He lay back against the couch, looking up to the ceiling for a long moment before he returned to look at me and Bonnie. Enzo stood in a corner with his arms crossed and looking scared for the first time.

It had only been a few hours past that things had turned into a state of uncertainty, where Elijah Mikaelson had showed himself in a capacity, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out the why of it.

"Is the house protected?" Dad asked after a complete minute had passed. "Can we speak without worry?"

"The spells should have held," I answered. "It's better we be on the cautious side and recheck the house."

Dad gave Enzo a look and the man disappeared without another word. Dad slowly stood and stretched before he disappeared too. There was quiet between Bonnie and I as we waited, hearing the clatter of objects being shifter and the fluid patter of footsteps. I closed my eyes too, leaning back against the couch and calming my breathing.

It was surprising how little fear I was feeling. Rationally, I knew that he was dangerous and that our interests weren't aligned, but I was calm about it all. We'd all split up after getting Mason: Tyler and his uncle returning home and to the packs, Luka going back to his father, and me to my own family.

Fifteen minutes and finally they returned.

"Nothing new from my part," said Enzo.

Dad nodded. "They're involved, right?" Dad asked. "The Martins?"

"I don't know," I answered. I hadn't thought about it much, but the few times that I tried it had caused a large headache. "It might be some larger play to get us to trust them. Without Luka I wouldn't have been able to move through the Cloaked space."

"But you didn't get anything from him?" asked Enzo. "That he might know about this?"

I shook my head. "I was sort of distracted. Not looking for anything in particular, instead keeping an eye for any trouble with my wards."

"You're not saying something," said Bonnie. She was looking at me with an odd expression and when I looked at her, I could see it in her eyes that she'd figured it out. "He asked you on a date?"

"Yes," I said.

Enzo snorted. "And you said no, of course, right?"

"I said yes," I said.

Enzo let out another snort, though this one was a chortled, a little delirious. "What game are you playing?" he asked. "Because to me this seems the epitome of stupidity."

"I want to say keep your enemy close or whatever," I said. "But that's not really true. I was flustered and I sort of like him. He's easy on the eyes."

"Of course you'd choose a moment like this to become a teenager," Enzo muttered. There was more of that fear and a part of me liked it. I'd told them about the Original and though I was their only source for this, with nothing even proving they really existed, they still trusted my word.

I pushed that feeling back, focusing on the present and the future.

Dad was looking at me with a pitying gaze.

"We have to call Lucy back," he said. "Even if she didn't get the spell you were after, we need her power behind us if we can hope to take them down."

"That spell would have been really useful," I said, a sigh filing my tone. "But it's better we have her now than some spell in the future."

"I'll have to tell the Allied Council," Dad said, getting to his feet. "It's better if we discuss all of this as a group. How we're going to deal with the Martins and the protection detail on Elena now that Elijah's showed himself."

"We could also set up a watch, too," said Bonnie, as Dad was reaching for his phone. He stopped looking at Bonnie just as we had. "Micah told me of something he did when…when everything had gone to hell."

No doubt she'd changed the wording on for my benefit.

"You setup lines on the ground, connections so that you wouldn't have to say the spell over and over," she said and I remembered the experience. "We could setup a similar deal. Use the properties of water or perhaps a mirror to create an image with which to scry with. We already have something tied to the Original."

"Their mother's pendant," I said.

Bonnie nodded. "Even if he's cloaked, we know that it can be broken with enough power and a strong enough link. Things that we both have."

"And if that's not enough," I said. "We could always use their father's blood."

At that Dad started, looking at me as though I'd suddenly gone insane. "The same creature that your mother and grandmother were scared off? You want to disturb it?"

"I want its blood," I said. "Having anything to do with Mikael would be idiocy of the greatest part."

"How about we first look at the pendant option before moving forward?" said Bonnie, looking between Dad and I with a worried expression. "If the threads don't work, then we can use something stronger."

"First the Council," said Dad. "Communication is key. In the meantime. The both of you should sleep here tonight. You're dealing with witches and you sleeping on your own terrifies me."

"That is something I really want to do," I said, stifling a yawn. I didn't have school today, but above and beyond everything I was starting to feel my fatigue. Dad walked out of the room, his phone at his ear.

Bonnie muttered a spell, the smell of sage drifting through the room.

"We aren't going to sleep?" I said, asking the two. They were looking at me with various levels of interest in their eyes.

"I think we're both wondering why you're so calm about this," said Bonnie, there were slight hints of worry in her eyes, though I couldn't tell why.

"I'm thinking along the lines that you have a plan," said Enzo. "And that you didn't want to tell daddy dearest about it because you knew he'd refuse."

I bleary shook my head. "I'm just tired, haven't thought much about all this. I think I'm still running on an emotional high. Sleep will help that."

Both of them frowned. "That's not usually how you react to high stress situations," said Enzo. "You should be wanting to move right now. Thinking on plans, taking everything in on the macro scale and tossing plans at us."

"Shane told me to slow down. I'm less likely to miss things that way. And working off of emotion really isn't good. Muddles the mind," I replied. I got up, stretching. "I'll see you guys when I wake up," I said, leaving them and going up to bed.

Tomorrow was likely to have a lot of discussions. Between my coven, the Allied Council and now the wolves and their reincarnate, I would need my mind to be at its top level. Something that wouldn't be true if I didn't sleep.

Mechanically, I went about my nightly ablutions, pushing back the urge to look out the window and forced myself to sleep. It didn't take a lot with the fatigue doing much of the work, and then I was lost in very confusing dreams.