Sophia's POV
By the time we arrived back in New Orleans it was just after 2pm and while Nik had already texted all the daylighters to meet him in the courtyard of the compound then immediately headed out saying he needed to attend to something which made me frown but I busied myself in heading up to Hayley's room seeing her sitting on her bed with a book so I raised my knuckles to the door knocking twice and she looked up.
"Sophia, you're back" she smiled making me smile back as I stepped inside.
"Yeah sorry about leaving you here with the riff-raff, how are you, how is-" I pointed to her stomach.
"She's good" she smiled at me and I nodded my head looking down at where he hands were placed over her bump with a mixture of admiration, wonder and envy.
"Well I hope my in-laws have been treating you well"
"They have although Elijah can't seem to be in the same room as me" she protested and I frowned a little.
"I wouldn't take it personally Hayley, Elijah can be a bit...odd, he sometimes can't see a good thing for himself when it's right in front of him" I winked at her before I heard Nik's voice downstairs. "Anyway I should go make sure Klaus is behaving himself" I headed out of the room placing my own hands over my stomach with despair since it still should've been me...I wish that it was me.
"Dearest brethren your attention please, no doubt you're all surprised to see Thierry Vanchure who's supposed to be rotting in the Garden for the crime of killing one of our own and I personally decided to issue him with a pardon, I hope you'll all welcome home Thierry" I raised my eye wondering what angle Nik was playing now but smiled when Thierry gives Diego a hug given the two were friends.
"Welcome home, man"
"You're in a good mood, you should visit Mystic Falls more often" Marcel stated looking at Nik.
"I assure you it has nothing to do with Mystic Falls, however I have pressing responsibilities here" Nik replied and I noticed the not so subtle look over to where I was standing with the first part making me smile at him as he turns to address the crowd of vampires. "Now, as you all know the witch Davina is no longer with us, without Davina we can no longer monitor the activity of our witch neighbors, however since their Harvest failed their magic will soon be gone forever until then I say we keep them on their toes" he turned to Diego. "Diego, I wonder if you might lead a rousting in the cauldron" I furrowed my brows since the last rousting didn't end well especially for Thierry but Diego smiles and starts to plan with the other vampires while I turn my head to Marcel as grabs his bottle and goes to storm away but Nik stops him in the doorway. "Marcel, I'd hoped you would join Diego"
"Nah, I'm gonna take a personal day" he argues and pushes past Nik as he leaves so I make my way over to Nik.
"So mind filling me in on the plan, like you said you would?" I reminded him and he turned smiling.
"No plan yet my love but I assure you, you'll be the first to hear when I do" he replied before looking off in the direction that Marcel had disappeared to.
"He's gonna need time Nik, Davina was like a daughter to him and you of all people understand that feeling of lost"
"Yes I understand love but right now we don't have time for it" he argues before he walks off and I frown immediately following him as he walks into the lower study where Marcel is sitting on the couch drinking his sorrows away which I know definitely won't help nor what Nik is about to say will. "Ugh, is this what's it's come to I bear the full weight of our kingdom while you pout like a child"
"You wanted to be king" Marcel replies looking up at him. "Besides, you look like you got it covered"
"If the men see you shirk your duties, they're likely to do the same"
"I told you, I am not in the mood for vampire hijinks" Marcel protests.
"No you'd rather sit wallowing in sorrow for your lost little friend" Nik snaps.
"Nik!" I snapped warning him to lay off as Marcel stands up and points a finger at Nik.
"Don't push me right now!"
"I am sorry Davina is gone, ok I'm sorry but this mournful attitude is unworthy of you and it's boring to me"
"That's enough Niklaus!" I yelled getting between them before a fight broke out but Diego enters the room at the right time although he was looking worried.
"Hey guys, we got a problem" we frowned but followed him out letting him lead us to the Cauldron with thunder rumbling overhead to show us what he found and I found myself gripping Nik's hand as I looked up at the dark clouds. "We came to mess with the witches, just like you said and these two they went missing, found them like this not even staked just dead" I looked down at the two dead vampires with a frown as I looked at the whole picture, the circle, the marks on their foreheads before I looked up at Marcel as he takes one look at his dead men before he turns around and starts to walk away.
"Where are you going, someone has to account for this!" Nik yelled at him.
"You want revenge, get it yourself" Marcel argues turning back and walked back towards us pointing at the dead vampires. "That mark is tied to some bad mojo, any of y'all got any brains you'll head back to the compound and stay the hell out of this" he tells the others before he walks off so Nik turns to Diego.
"We're gonna find whoever did this and I will show them what suffering is" he says before he pulls on my hand leading me back to the compound.
"Nik the mark, you don't think-"
"No I don't, someone is copy-catting and I intend to find out who"
"Don't leave me out of this Nik, I remember what happened last time this magic was seen in the Quarter" I argued knowing his first instinct would be to lock me back up at the compound but that wasn't happening since I remember the first time we saw that mark all those years ago...in 1919.
"Gentlemen, make yourselves at home Mayor O'Connell appears to be running late but there's much to discuss, so I shall begin-" we heard Elijah saying as the leaders of the city took their seats.
"One moment please brother, you know how much I enjoy these illicit, little gatherings" Nik interrupted as he walks down the stairs to join them with me on his arm, making me smile a little for the fact that he actually included me in things like this even though it's inappropriate from women still to be involved in what the men called business.
"Do not be troubled, despite my brother's reputation I can assure you we've invited you here to broker in peace, you have my word" Elijah placates them as some of them look afraid to be in the mere presence of Nik.
"And lucky for you my brother always keeps his word" Nik smiles at them before he points out two of the men. "You two are from the Guerrera crime family, a brutish pack of thieves and killers and that's nothing compared to what you become on a full moon, is it?" he eluded with a smirk.
"Yes, yes, yes of course a bite from your kind is not lethal to an Original, conflict between us would not end well for you at all especially should you bite the dearest Sophia here either, my brother's wife" Elijah placated them again smiling at me as he introduced me. "Let's state our proposal here, my brother and I control the ports of the city but with Prohibition soon to be the law of the land, there'll be a certain uptick in the kind of federal presence we prefer to avoid therefore I'd like to suggest a system whereby, under our supervision of course, the Guerrera family can traffic alcohol into the city of New Orleans for a profit, we would still be in charge but our rule would remain a secret" he tells them but a man walks into the room clapping his hands obnoxiously with two identical twins following behind him, one of them holding a leather box in his hands, the both of them however had some kind of mark carved into their foreheads.
"This all sounds very good but tell me, how will it benefit the witches?" he asks us.
"I am sorry, this is a private meeting" Elijah argues.
"Yes for kings of the city but I too am a king and I have rules" I scoffed looking at him since there was only one true king of the city and it definitely wasn't this nobody.
"I'm impressed, you're either quite ambitious or quite mad, what's your name mate?" Nik asked him
"I am Alphonse Bellatunde Delgado, Papa Tunde to my followers and I come to ask that the witches be granted fair tribute for allowing your existence in our city" he replied and I raised an eye since it wasn't their city.
"Are you suggesting that you speak for the French Quarter witches?"
"I do now and I expect our future negotiations to go very smoothly, as a guarantee I brought a gift" he pointed to the leather box which the younger one placed on the table. "I await our next gathering" he smirked towards us. "Just men though, it's no place for a women" I glared at him and went to move forward in order to rip out his tongue for that but Nik's hand clamped down on my arm keeping me at his side as Papa Tunde and the others leave, we all turn to the leather box with confusion but it's Nik who lifts the lid.
"Well, I suppose we'll need a new mayor" he states after looking inside and when I stepped closer I see a head inside with a symbol carved into his forehead...
I snapped myself out of the memory the moment I heard the bodies hit the ground in the courtyard as Diego and a buddy had brought the two dead vampires back to the compound and Elijah came down to look at them for himself.
"Someone will die for this" Nik repeated making me frown since we didn't even know who was copycatting at this point and in his anger he was likely to kill the first person he suspected.
"Remarkably I don't disagree" Elijah agreed with him which made me raise an eye since that was a first. "However I would like to know where they learned such dark magic, I had hoped never to see that symbol again" he added and I nodded my head in agreeance.
"You and be both, 'Lijah" I sighed staring down at the symbol.
"I recall it is the signature of a fool who once stood against us, clearly some upstart witch is salvaging old tricks, I'll do for him as I did the other" Nik replies and I turn sharing a look with him. "Diego, when night falls I want you to gather every vampire in the Quarter, get me the head of whoever did this and put it on a stick"
"Yeah that's gonna be a problem" Diego argues and Nik's face drops. "Everyone is freaked out man, we haven't had witches killing vampires in a long time, Marcel made sure of that"
"Marcel has run off like a scared child you lot are left with me" Nik protests narrowing his eyes at Diego. "Now, who of you will fight to defend our home?" he asks as he looks around at the others but no one comes forward. "Not a single one of you will stand with me, so afraid are you of this new threat?" they all share looks at each other as Nik glares at them. "You should know better, I'll handle this myself" he states before he storms off and I frown sharing a brief look with Elijah before I let out a sigh and quickly moved to catch up with him.
"Nik I know you want to kill whoever did this but you can't go off angry, we have to keep our heads before we go running into a trap, we already know this kind of witchcraft is not something to mess around with" I argued keeping pace with his speeded steps.
"Alright love, we'll go it your way" he replied and I frowned since he didn't sound very sincere which already told me this was going to get messy just like it did last time.
I was laughing as I sat with Rebekah and two men she was currently entertaining, although Bekah and I didn't get along when Nik awoke her from her supernatural slumber we'd gotten past it in the past 37 years since 1887 and we'd became friends especially after Nik and I got married but today was all about Marcel who we were celebrating his arrival back from WWI finally after 4 years of him being away.
"Why don't you get us some martinis?" Rebekah suddenly asked one of the gentleman but I noticed her eyes had looked up to the entrance of the courtyard so I looked up too and spotted Marcel had finally arrived for his own party and he was walking towards us. "Thank you" she smiled at the man that stood to fetch us some more drinks.
"Aren't you going to welcome me home?" Marcel asked looking at Rebekah smiling.
"I wouldn't want you to think that I was happy to see you" Rebekah replied and I frowned looking at her before I looked up at Marcel.
"Well I'm sorry to you Bekah but I'm happy to see him" I smiled standing up and wrapped my arms around his shoulders and he squeezed me back. "My sire-brother, it's good to see you"
"It's good to see you too Soph" he smiled back before he turned back to Rebekah who was glaring at us. "How long you gonna hate me?" he asked her.
"You left me in a box for 52 years, twice that seems like a good start" she narrowed her eyes harder at him. "Come on boys" she stood up and walked away with the two guys following her.
"Don't take it too personally Marcel, she still likes you deep down" I smiled following Rebekah with my eyes.
"How do you know that?" he asked me.
"Because girls know these things" I smiled at him.
"There he is!" Nik yelled out making us both turn and see him approaching. "Our war hero, triumphantly returned!" he beamed throwing his arms out and pulled Marcel into a hug. "Oh good to have back Marcellus, welcome home!"
"I don't know about you Marcel, but I could do with a drink"
"Lead the way Soph" he smiled making me smile back before I sent a wink towards Nik as I grabbed Marcel's hand and lead him over to the bar where I got us a round of shots and we all threw them back celebrating Marcel's safe return since I'd been just as worried about him these past couple of years, I've already lost my brothers, I couldn't lose my sire-brother too.
"The prodigal son has finally learned to hold his liquor" Nik laughed as a few more shots.
"The army will do that to you" Marcel smiled.
"Well it's good to have you back, Niklaus was beside himself in your absence" Elijah replied making Nik smiled shrugging his shoulders.
"Now that you are here perhaps you could help settle an argument, you see you've traded a war abroad for one here in the quarter, some rouge witch wants a piece of the city we built and Elijah for reasons beyond my comprehension insists that negotiation is our best recourse"
"Yes on the topic of your failed comprehension you forget as a solider Marcel has seen not only how small the world has become and how fast news can travel but also the very horrors of war itself, surely Marcel would agree with me the best way for us to defend our home is by exercising discretion"
"So who's the witch you want to kill?" Marcel asked Nik after Elijah shared a look with him.
"His name is Papa Tunde" I spoke up rolling my eyes at the ridiculous name.
"I think he's a charlatan" Nik added placing his arm around my waist making me smile.
"Well Marcel shall be able to decide for himself" Elijah spoke up nodding his chin towards the door where Papa Tunde was walking in with the same twin men behind him from the meeting.
"You invited him here?" Marcel questioned.
"Of course, were not savages are we?" Nik replied with a smirk putting down his glass before he let go of my waist and walked towards Papa Tunde making me frown since he hadn't told me that he'd invited him here.
"Thank you for accepting our invitation and welcome, I hope you'll allow me to play the role of host" Nik smiled at Papa Tunde gesturing to some ladies who immediately brought over drinks. "If there's anything you need...anything at all..."
"Pleasure before business then" Papa Tunde laughed before turning to the boys behind him and I saw Nik watching their interactions very closely.
"Ah, you've deigned to break your despair long enough to pick up the phone" Nik's voice snapped me out of my memories and I turned towards him seeing him on the phone.
"I figured you'd just keep calling" Marcel's voice flowed out from Nik's phone.
"Sophia and I are in the cauldron now, you could meet us here we could start burning passersby at the stake"
"Sorry, I'm gonna chase down my own lead" Marcel protested making me frown.
"And where might that be, the bottom of a bottle of scotch?" Nik snapped annoyed by his response.
"I'm at Sophie Deveraux's place, I figured I'll sit here and drink till she shows" I scoffed since that sounded like a unlikely scenario.
"Or you could snap out of this funk and come and help me end this" Nik snapped back but Marcel just hung up and Nik seethed staring up at the painted symbol on the wall, it being the very declaration of war from whoever was doing this.
"Big, bad Klaus Mikaelson" I narrowed my eyes as we both turned to see Sophie Deveraux behind us clearly drunk judging by the bottle in her hands.
"Sophie just the witch I was looking to brutalize" Nik said before he speed vamps toward Sophie and grabs her in a chokehold. "Perhaps you could explain the attacks on my men"
"Nik let her go!" I snapped speeding over grabbing his shoulder and pulled him off Sophie giving him a small glare. "You talk, what the hell is going on?" I snapped at Sophie to start explaining.
"It's a complex spell, old-school stuff rooted in sacrificial magic, whoever did this to your guys my guess is they were an offering to gain more power, more guys they kill, more power they get" she explained staring at the symbol of the wall as she did but before we had the chance to reply Nik's phone started vibrating in his pocket so he pulled it out and answered it.
"Well I didn't expect a call from you so soon"
"You need to get to Rousseau's now, some lunatic witch doctor is killing Marcel" I spun around at the sound of Cami's voice and the terror that it held in addition to her words.
"Get as far away from there as you can" Nik told her before the phone hung up and with one look I nodded and we sped away from the cauldron to Rousseau's.
"The sins of the father are paid for by the son, I will take pleasure in telling Klaus how you died" we heard someone say right as we sped in with Nik grabbing the man kneeling over Marcel about to kill him and when Nik pulled his head up my eyes widened when I saw who it was since it couldn't be possible, Nik killed him.
"I remember killing you, I rather relished it, what a joy it is to relived fond memories " Nik said after seeing for himself who we were actually dealing with, Papa Tunde back from the dead and surprisingly strong as he threw Nik back like he weighed nothing smashing into a glass cabinet breaking it on impact
"You're here, good" Papa Tunde replied turning around to face Nik as I moved backwards towards him. "I can crush you before the eyes of your son" I narrowed my eyes at him especially when he turned his eyes towards me. "And your wife, then I will consume you all"
"Try it" I snarled at him but Nik was the first to actually react and sped towards him but Papa Tunde easily caught him mid-move grabbing him around the throat subduing him with ease.
"This time I'm stronger" Papa Tunde said and I sped forward going to attack from behind but it's like he sensed it and threw Nik down turning unnaturally fast throwing me backwards into the bar and I yelled out in pain as I landed hard before looking up meeting Nik's eyes and his gaze told me to run, I shook my head in argument but before he could even keep eye contact with me he turned when Papa Tunde walked towards him and when he tried to stand wrapped his hand around Nik's throat.
"Stop!" I yelled struggling to stand up. "You don't have to do this"
"Oh but I want to do this" Papa Tunde replied bringing down his bone dagger towards Nik's forehead beginning to crave his symbol into his forehead.
"NO!" I yelled when I watched Nik's eyes turn white and his skin begin to desiccate knowing there was nothing I could do, I stood no chance against this guy and it was killing me but Papa Tunde suddenly gasped and stumbled back which gave Nik time to pick up a broken piece of wood which he used to hit Papa Tunde over the head knocking him down before he sped over to Marcel right as we heard movement and looked over seeing Papa Tunde was gone but our attention swiftly moved back to Marcel as I rushed over falling to my knees seeing the grey complexion and veins. "Marcel?" I looked up fearfully at Nik right as Cami came running in.
"Is he dead?" she asked us.
"Get out of here" Nik snapped towards her.
"Is Marcel dead, did that guy kill him?" she demanded more forcibly.
"He didn't finish him off, Marcel needs blood to heal" Nik replied standing up and walked towards her to stop her from coming any closer. "Go, find me someone off the street"
"I'll do it" she insisted which made me look up in shock.
"No, not you" Nik protested stopping her from coming over again. "He wouldn't want you involved in this"
"You don't control me anymore, remember?" she sneered at him before pushing past and came over to where Marcel was and when she knelt down beside him I stood up and stepped back sharing a look with Nik. "It's okay Marcel" I frowned looking back down as she pulled her hair out of the way before lifting his head towards her neck. "It's okay, it's okay Marcel" he repeated right before Marcel bit down and started drinking hungrily as Nik and I could only watch.
We made sure to pull Marcel off before he drained her absolutely dry and I bit into my own wrist and offered to Cami who looked quite woozy but she meerly looked at my offered wrist in disgust.
"It will heal you" I told her but she shook her head. "Fine" I scoffed standing up sharing a look with Nik before I left him to deal with her and Marcel who was back to normal and healed so I returned to the compound and walked towards Nik and I's room but paused when I saw Hayley still in the study looking at the drawings from Davina. "Hey"
"Hey" she smiled turning around as I walked in.
"You're still fascinated by these" I nodded my head at the drawings, we still haven't figured out why Davina had been drawing the face of Elijah's ex-lover and while it was concerning it seemed to be at the bottom of our list of problems lately especially with Papa Tunde back.
"Just trying to figure out what it means" she shrugged looking down at them. "She's pretty" she suddenly said and I couldn't help smile since if I didn't know any better there was a tone of jealously there.
"I don't know what happened since she died before I came into the picture but I do know that Elijah cares for you very much Hayley" I replied smiling a little before my eyes fell to her right wirst where I saw teeth marks and my eyes narrowed at it which she noticed and looked down. "Who did it?" I demanded.
"Relax, it was Elijah" she replied and my eyes widened a little with disbelief. "We found Rebekah was being channeled by some witch and the spell was keeping Elijah from breaking the connection, we had to use blood to break it"
"Why yours?"
"Because it had to be the blood of a witch" she replied and I frowned in confusion.
"But your not a witch" I argued before it suddenly dawned on me...Esther...she's our baby's grandmother which means my baby is a quarter witch. "You used your blood which you currently share with my baby!" I exclaimed glaring at her. "I'm going to kill Elijah" I turned and stormed out of the room but stopped at the top of the stairs when I saw the crowd in the courtyard seeing Hayley had followed me.
"Not long ago, you all united against me" I heard Nik's voice and turned to the third floor balcony seeing him standing there looking down at the crowd of Marcel's vampires. "You failed, since then in my benevolence I have wiped the slate clean, yet it seems clear you think that I am the one who needs to earn your respect, your loyalty" he pauses. "You're mistaken, it is you who must prove yourselves to me, our community is under attack I require soldiers, I need warriors not cowards, each of you has a decision to make you either fight alongside me or you leave now" he tells them and I look back down at the vampires as none of them speak up for a couple seconds until Thierry suddenly steps forward looking up.
"We don't owe you anything" he states and I raise my eyebrow at him seeing Nik give him an angry glare. "If staying in the Quarter means living under your rule, I'd just as soon get the hell out" he turns and starts to walk out along with countless others all who walk out of the compound but it wasn't as much as I'd thought would initially leave which proved that Nik was earning the vampires respect and I rolled my eyes when I saw his smirk when I looked back up at him as he too must have figured that out before I turned and went to our room for the night figuring I'd deal with Elijah tomorrow about blood stealing from my unborn child.