"I was wondering…" Bella began as they settled themselves around the dining table. "If Lucien is so overpowered, why hasn't he tried anything yet?"
"He had been running cunning and deceptive ploys against us for some time now, killing wolves in the bayou through a shadow company, and just generally sticking it to us wherever he could without us realizing it was him all along," Elijah started first.
"But ever since he had become the Beast…" Klaus continued with a grimace as he recalled the various attacks on his family in the last few weeks.
"I'm sorry. The what?" the brunette interrupted since she hadn't heard that term before.
"Upgraded Original vampire. It's just easier with the short-hand," Rebekah amended helpfully.
"Anyhow, ever since then, he had become more openly hostile, but he enjoys toying with us, planning to kill us off slowly, one by one. He started by going after people we care about," the werewolf hybrid resumed, seething inside with anger at the vampire whom he had turned first.
"Right. Camille. My condolences," the agent solemnly said, again reminded that Klaus's primary motivation was avenging his love. Because he had loved her very dearly, she could see that. Maybe it never evolved into an actual relationship – for whatever reason, she didn't know – but that didn't change the bond they had shared.
"Also Finn before that, proving that he could kill an Original with his bite and that my blood was just as useless as a glass of water in treating it," Klaus commented darkly. Though there was no love lost for Finn. He had aligned himself with their mother, Esther, against them one too many times.
An Original dying meant that all their sires died along with them. The vampire hybrid hadn't known that Finn had been deceased before, and had been resurrected not long prior to his second demise. That did not bring his sires back, so they didn't perish twice over. In either case, the thought was horrifying, vampires across the planet suddenly ceasing to exist without any warning.
"Wait a minute, isn't Lucien sired to you? If he kills you, he dies with you… along with all the rest of the vampires in your sire line…" Bella trailed off as the realization hit her. Dammit, Damon was also from Klaus's sire line, and that meant Caroline and her too. Would she be affected? Would her cold one side save her if it came to the worst?
"The sire bond is unlinked. Klaus and Elijah were trapped on an astral plane and the only way I found to rescue their minds was through a spell utilizing Lucien, his oldest sire. The bond broke in the process. That was before he became the Beast, of course," Freya spoke up this time, a grim look on her face.
"I'm not sure if I should be glad or terrified," the agent sighed, rubbing her face exasperatedly. Not having to worry about Damon and everyone else was a plus, but damn. She needed to end it before the Beast got a chance at Klaus like never before. "So what is the plan?"
"Freya has been working on a spell to strip him of his new powers, return him to a normal vampire. The problem is we can't match him in either speed or strength until that happens. That's why we had the compound's deed signed over to her so that this would be a safe haven until we can make a move," Klaus explained their progress so far.
"But I can! Wouldn't ripping his heart out work? That method is effective against any other vampire, even Originals. Just no one is – was – strong enough do to it until now," Bella perked up, finding a niche in the plan. "Plus cold one venom could be just as potent against him as his against you," she amended recalling Klaus's adverse reaction. Maybe she could trick him into biting her on her hand. If nothing else it could weaken him for a while, giving them a window to act. And what if… she was venomous? Biting him might be a wise course of action too.
"That might actually work," Elijah nodded, satisfied with that angle.
"Absolutely not," the werewolf hybrid shot them down decisively.
"Nik, it has been your idea to bring her here for exactly this reason, speculating that cold ones might be a chink in his armor since no one ever thinks about warding against them," Rebekah cast an annoyed glance at her brother.
"I cannot risk her like that. If Lucien bites her… she nearly fainted yesterday when I did," he practically growled. The werewolf venom the Beast had was seven times more potent.
"That's a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think? And I was fine a second later. Werewolf venom doesn't affect me as it does other vampires," the brunette informed the others, carefully excluding her weird dream. Otherwise, she was fine.
"Wait, you bit her? And she didn't need your blood to heal?" the Original in the black suit gaped, astounded by that revelation.
"No, I didn't. The wound closed on its own just fine," Bella told them, pointedly ignoring Klaus's displeased grunts.
"Well, I think that is our answer then," Elijah leaned back in his chair, deeming the issue closed.
"When are we doing this?" the agent inquired, now itching to get the whole thing over with.
"Tonight would be best with the full moon, so the wolves are at their strongest," Klaus begrudgingly said, seeing that his protests found deaf ears, especially Bella's. She was dead set on helping in whatever way she could.
"Can they control themselves in that form?" the brunette raised a brow. From what she had read about werewolves they went savage on the full moon, attacking anything and everything they could. What would ensure that they didn't turn on them?
"Hayley is a hybrid, so she turns at will, or not at all, and still retains her strength, and through the sacred union she had with Jackson, their alpha, that gift is shared with the rest of the wolves in the bayou," he revealed, still in a sour mood. From the corner of her eye, she saw Elijah frown at the mention of the girl. Not out of malice, more like concern.
"What about Hope?" Bella dared to ask. Knowing wolf psychology, the alpha fought with the pack, and she got the distinct feeling that Hayley might be the one wearing the pants in the house, so to speak. She didn't want to endanger the mother of his daughter if it wasn't necessary.
"Some of the older wolves will stay behind, she will be with family," Niklaus got up from the table, fishing his phone out to inform the pack about the plan.
"Oh, alright, but shouldn't… Hayley stay with her?" the vampire hybrid inquired looking between the brothers.
"You'll find that Hayley is not so easy to be reasoned with. She will want to fight with us to ensure her daughter's future and safety," Elijah murmured fondly, Nik taking his exit to make that call.
Oh, so this is how it is! What a love triangle! Though Klaus had said before that it was a one-time thing with the wolf girl that resulted in an unexpected pregnancy – because seriously who would have guessed that he was capable of reproducing, being a vampire, dead and all? – finding out that the other Mikaelson brother harbored romantic feelings for her was something else. But now she was married to the pack alpha? That must have stung. Not to mention awkward.
"Do we know where Lucien is hiding out, or are we having him come to us?" Bella asked, going onto the next point in the strategy that should be decided.
"I think our hand was just forced in that regard," Klaus burst back in, barely keeping a lid on his anger. "Lucien is at the bayou this very moment, going after my daughter. They had barricaded themselves in the hut. It seems Hope put up an involuntary barrier that is strong enough to keep him out for a while, but many of the wolves are outside, defenseless."
"What, how? Isn't she just… like a year old?" the vampire hybrid jumped up from the table with the rest of them, everyone scattering to gather whatever they needed to face off their nemesis. Witches didn't usually show signs of their power until their pre-teen years.
"Fourteen months to be exact. She is the descendant of very powerful witches. Our mother created the immortality spell that made us who we are. And our aunt… well, let's not get into Dahlia. Hope had shown bursts of magic since she was just a few months old," the werewolf hybrid smirked despite himself, very proud of his talented daughter.
"Amazing," Bella managed to breathe as they reached the back alley they would use to move through the city inconspicuously in broad daylight. Elijah and Rebekah were close behind them, the girl having changed from her workout clothes.
"Freya, you stay here and keep working on that spell just in case," Klaus told his older half-sister over his shoulder. "Come out to the bayou if you find something. Here's the key."
He threw his car keys to her since Freya didn't have their enhanced speed. She just nodded.
"Are you seriously coming in that?" Rebekah asked dubiously from Bella as they started running. She was still in leggings, a T-shirt and running shoes, no make-up, hair in an even messier messy bun than before from the tussling with the brothers.
"Why would I dress up for a battle and possible bloodbath? My clothes would just get ruined anyway," the agent quipped back in the same tone, a hint of an amused smile dancing at the corner of her lips.
"I guess… you have a point there," the blonde conceded with a grimace. Some of her favorite clothes had become victims of similar skirmishes in the past.
Elijah just buried his face in his palm, while Klaus fought very hard not to laugh. The situation was just too dire for that.
They made it to the wetlands at the outskirts of the city in no time, all of them running at full speed. Except for Bella. She noticed that she still wasn't at her limit, which was a promising sign. The Originals had believed that Hope would be safe there – not trusting that the protections around the compound would hold indefinitely, it being an obvious target – but Lucien somehow found out and managed to track them down in the bayou, not that hard a feat once he knew to look there. Raised the question whether they had a mole. Klaus instantly suspected Marcel.
Bella sped up and arrived a fraction earlier than the rest, just in time to witness the Beast get past the barrier the little girl had put up. She rushed at Lucien, kicking him out of the way with a well-placed jump before he could enter the hut, catching him by surprise.
"Take Hope and run!" Klaus yelled to Rebekah, rushing to Bella's side.
She was now at a standoff with his first sire, who regarded them with predatory malice, having recovered already. The wolves – at least the ones who weren't dead yet – gathered behind the hybrids in human form but having triggered their fangs.
"Are you all right?" Elijah rushed into the hut to Hayley just as Rebekah ran out in haste with her niece, heading back to the compound.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I want to murder that son of a bitch," the mother seethed, stomping out of the hut, dark brown hair billowing behind her, her eyes already turning gold-black. Both of them joined Klaus and Bella.
"Klaus, Klaus, Klaus," Lucien tutted mockingly. "Having teeny tiny girls as bodyguards now? What good will it do for you? You know, no matter how many you bring against me, you still can't win."
He entirely missed the fact that Bella was different, or what it actually meant that she had successfully sent him flying fifty yards.
"We will see about that," Hayley snarled and ran at him, her judgment clouded by the motherly protective instinct for her daughter.
"No!" Klaus yelled at her, but there was no stopping her.
The Beast instantly plunged his hand into her chest, grabbing at her heart. Hayley groaned in pain, realizing her heated mistake too late. The wolves converged on him instinctively, but all that accomplished was Lucien swiping them to the side and knocking them out with ease, even with only one free arm. Not to mention that the movement caused ever greater suffering for the queen of the wolves since her muscles and blood vessels ripped further in her chest.
"Quite befitting end to this game, don't you think? The queen and the king defeated by a mere pawn," the man spat, almost like a scorned woman.
"What would you prove by killing her? It's me you hate," Niklaus tried to reason with him.
"You surely have realized by now, that I don't care who dies! I literally have her life in my hands, do you really want to test the limits of my patience? Or mercy for that matter? Bow down before me!" he taunted Klaus with that wicked grin, beckoning him to bow before him.
Before anyone could react, Bella lunged at Lucien again, grabbing his free hand and twisting it back and holding a pressure point that made him reflexively open up his other palm. Anything else might have made him rip Hayley's heart out instinctively, but it also left her vulnerable because she couldn't do anything else while she concentrated on applying the right amount of pressure until someone rescued the girl. As Elijah swooped in and took his wounded love away, the Beast turned his attention to Bella and kicked her off that sent her flying into a tree. Her breath was knocked out of her on impact for a second, but she was planning on getting right back up and attacking, only to see Klaus beating her to it, fueled by rage, running straight into his death.
The brunette could see in the sadistic grin of Lucien that this was precisely what he had wanted, and he was going to bite him, no further questions asked. Bella sprinted at full speed, not bothering to yell out a warning or anything, and pushed Klaus out of the way just a fraction of a second not too late. Her right side was left wide open, not having enough time to turn to meet Lucien's attack up front, and the Beast bit her mercilessly right in the neck. There was nothing pleasurable about the experience this time around. There was no caring or desire there. Well, if you didn't count bloodlust, the desire to kill.
Bella twisted herself out, feeling the ripping of her neck muscles in the process, since he hadn't let go with his teeth, and brought her left elbow up to squarely hit Lucien in his temple. It connected, even left the man staggering a bit.
The agent didn't waste time with checking her wound to see how bad it was bleeding, she trusted her healing to take care of it. Instead, she went after the Upgraded Original vampire, taking advantage of the opening left by his astonishment with the fact that she was able to match his strength and speed. Eye for an eye, one would say, she retaliated with biting him hard on the right side of his neck.
He let out a guttural scream as if something was burning him. And maybe that was exactly what was happening, cold one venom had that effect on people as the transformation began. She was venomous after all. Bella let go of him a second later, spitting out whatever blood was in her mouth. She absolutely did not want any part of this monster inside of her. The brunette plunged her right hand through his torso for good measure.
Until this point, she hadn't had time to look up, but now she saw that around the bite wound that he had received from her, his flesh was starting to turn into stone, spreading outward like a disease at a humanly visible pace.
"Please… no…" Lucien pleaded in a pathetic tone, the conceited, arrogant demeanor all gone.
Bella looked at him bewilderedly as she tried to catch her breath.
"Are you for real?" she grimaced at him. What a coward!
His eyes wandered to the side, and the agent noticed from the corner of her eye that Klaus came to stand beside him, playing with a shard of glass in his hand. What was he planning? Maybe it wasn't his impending doom that had Lucien frightened after all.
"I've had about a thousand years too much from you," Klaus began in a cold-hearted tone that even had Bella chilled to the bone even though they were not meant for her. "For a century, you lived with my name, and you never did quite recover from losing it, did you? You became a man of wealth and stature, but you never could crawl out of my shadow. And in the end... despite the gift of immortality, you have always known what you truly are."
"Please…" the Beast pleaded still.
The Original hybrid began cutting his mouth up in Glasgow grin fashion, much like the Joker in Batman. "You... are... nothing."
Bella deemed this was well enough emotional torture and humiliation for someone about to die, no matter what they had done in the past – having no idea what the significance of this little act was – and she swiftly ripped his heart out, not waiting for Klaus's prompting. The spreading of the petrification stopped, but his entire body turned greyish with protruding veins as it dropped before her.
The adrenalin rush was wearing off quickly, and she staggered back a few feet, the reality of her actions setting in. Bella was still holding that heart, and she let it fall from her shaky hand with disgust, just as Klaus began to set Lucien's body on fire.
I just killed someone. Even if he was a bloodthirsty – in every sense of the word – vampire, who would have gladly killed her while laughing in her face if he got the chance, that realization hit her hard. Before this she had always managed to catch the culprits alive, secretly using compulsion to get them to submit if no one was looking, but she was also good at placing shots in non-lethal but incapacitating spots on the body.
Darkness began to envelop her. "Klaus…" she managed to weakly whisper before collapsing.
The Original whipped around to see what was wrong and barely managed to get to her and catch her in time.
"Bella!" he frantically called her name, holding her close and trying to assess her condition.
The bite wound on her neck was severe, she had lost some blood too, but it was already starting to heal, albeit slowly. Distraught and worried, he gathered her up in his arms in bridal style and disappeared into the woods to bring her back to compound.
Lucien's heart lay there among the leaves forgotten, a pair of sneakers walking up to it.
Marcel bent down to examine the cardiac organ, then he produced a small vial from the pocket of his hoodie and squeezed the remainder of the blood from it into the container.
Hours passed, and darkness descended upon the city of jazz yet again, allowing creatures of the night, restrained by the sunlight, to roam free again. Edward had caught the red-eye from D.C. to New Orleans yesterday, getting himself a hotel room near the airport. One thing became evident to him instantly. The city was crawling with vampires and other supernatural creatures. Everything reeked. The smell was quite different from cold ones that much he could tell.
Based on the information he had, the NCIS office was located in the French Quarter, so he began looking there first. The stench was definitely stronger in that part of the town. Unsurprisingly that was also where he had run into Bella's essence again, right there at the gate of her new workplace. He followed the trail, twisting and turning around side streets, doubling back on a weird path that made him wonder what exactly his love was doing, taking this route. Eventually, he happened upon a large brick building with a white wooden entrance.
Bella had spent some time there in the past two days he was sure. Also quite certain that there were other vampires inside, even at that very moment. The place was quiet though, no chatter to eavesdrop on. He even believed to hear signs of people sleeping. Did vampires sleep? Or they had human guests?
Then there was a bed creaking, the noise of a door opening and closing, feminine footsteps through a hallway, another door.
"Why isn't she waking up? It's been eight hours already," a man suddenly asked the person entering the room.
"Just give her time, she is breathing fine. The wound closed already too," a female voice answered.
"I hope you are right. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself otherwise," the previous person darkly commented.
"Try to get some sleep, you had a long day." And with that, the woman left.
That conversation had Edward puzzled, and that was when he realized that he didn't hear the thoughts of those two. He heard the dreams of a baby girl and her mother loud and clear though.
The house seemed like a fortress, much too dangerous to enter on his own, even if no one was on guard, which he doubted. Edward decided that now was not the time to seek his love out, he would have to catch her alone if he wanted to have his heart to heart.
He could abide his time until Monday, she would surely be easier to catch without vampire company after work before she returned to this place.
His phone started to ring for like the fiftieth time. It was Alice again. She and others from the family had been calling him practically non-stop since he had decided to come to New Orleans. Whatever she saw about Bella possibly rejecting him, he did not care. He had to actually hear it from her.
"Dammit, he is still not picking up!" Alice groaned in frustration.
They barely made it home to Ithaca with Jasper when she had a vision that the feds would start poking around into their background, triggered by Edward getting spotted lurking around the Navy Yard in D.C. by Bella's boss on Friday. He made the connection to that one high-school photo of the two of them at prom, thus learning Edward's name. A relationship six years into the past wouldn't have caught their attention otherwise. The whole thing would blow up even further in the morning when they would learn that he went to New Orleans, assuming that he was stalking Bella. Which he kind of was. And she was a federal agent, with people having her back, even when she didn't ask for it.
They had to disappear from the human world for a while and set up new identities after the heat subsided. Alice even had to warn the Denalis because they had been in fairly regular phone contact over the past years and the phone records would be checked first. Their various nomad friends were safe though as far as she could tell. The family packed their stuff up in no time since they were practically leaving everything behind, their identities compromised and all, they were only waiting for Alice to try one last time contacting Edward. Everyone else had tried as well, but he was stubbornly not taking their calls.
"Alice, we have to go. You said they will be here before noon tomorrow and we have to be far away by then," Rosalie strutted up behind her, beckoning her adoptive sister to get moving. "You can keep calling from the car."
"No, I can't. We have to leave this phone because it will be tracked, and if I try calling him from the new one that will be tracked too," the seer whined, wanting desperately to warn her brother of the danger that awaits them. If NCIS gets any closer to the truth, the Volturi might hear about it and then they are all doomed.
"He can handle himself," the tall blonde rolled her eyes, exasperatedly annoyed with the whole situation. She couldn't believe Bella was still fucking up their life after all this time.
And with that they left into the night, switching cars several times, running on some parts of the journey before getting another one.
In a lush forest with swampy areas – that Bella now recognized as the bayou – two identical looking boys, appearing to be about the age of ten, were playing merrily, chasing each other, laughter echoing between the trees in their wake.
"Renly, Carter!" Bella called after the mischievous runts worriedly. "Don't stray beyond where I can see you!"
"Love, with our senses there is no way to lose the boys in the forest," Klaus chuckled at her over-protective motherliness.
"That's not what I'm worried about!" the brunette huffed quietly with an angry stare, making sure her voice was low enough for the little ones not to hear. "You know as well as I do that Marcel is still out there, wanting revenge for Davina."
"And they are wolves who can shapeshift at will and are immune to werewolf venom," the original quipped back.
"They are also kids, who could be kidnapped, traumatized for life, used as leverage against us!"
Hislaidback attitude with the boys was infuriating to her. Hope, his little princess, his first, was coddled to no end even though she was a practicing witch already, capable of bringing anyone to their knees by a mere look even though she was just three years old.
Except forBella, of course, she was immune, though the toddler never wanted to mess with her step-mother to begin with. They had become fast friends actually on first-sight when she was merely a one-year-old.
"And you are a momma bear no one would dare to mess with, even if they dared to mess with me," he stated with a smirk, not minding one bit that his wife was more powerful than he was.
"You are such an idiot! I'm being serious!" Bella smacked him on the arm.
"I am too…" Klaus trailed off because the surprised cry out of Carter snapped them to attention. Bella was already sprinting at full speed, nimbly avoiding the trees, to see what was wrong, Klaus following close behind.
They found Carter at the bottom of a little hill, in wolf form, sandy blond colored, just like his dad's hair. It was funny how their hair was dark brown like their mom's in human form though. His clothes were scattered around, shredded to pieces, the surprise of the fall having triggered the transformation. He was yipping in dismay at Renly, who was still at the top, laughing his ass off at his twin brother. Motherly instinct told her that her playful – though others might say naughty – older boy (even if by just minutes) was the reason his younger brother was down there in the first place.
"Renly Mikaelson! Stop that this instant!" Bella chided sternly as she trod down the hill to check on her other son.
Her tone caused him to yelp and bite back the laugh, and as a result, he poofed into an identical wolf like the one at the bottom of the hill, right there by his father's side, his garments shredding just the same.
The Original werewolf just laughed amusedly at their antics.
"Good thing you have lived for a thousand years and accumulated a massive fortune, Klaus, because we would be broke in two seconds with the rate these two go through clothes," the vampire hybrid shook her head with mirth when she realized her son was alright. And she wasn't just talking about the involuntary transformations, the boys have not yet learned enough self-control to prevent them. Strictly speaking, they were only two years old, but the odd mixture of werewolf, vampire (Original and otherwise), untapped witch and cold one genetics left them growing at alarming rates. It seemed they needed new shoes, shirts or jeans every week because they had outgrown the last set.
A/N: Some dialogue in the bayou between Klaus and Lucien is taken directly or paraphrased from Originals 3x20 episode.