Vivienne was hunched over with her hands braced on her knees, struggling not to begin heaving and lose any dignity she might have left.
New Orleans was quite a distance from the river in Mystic Falls where she died, and the location acted as her source of power while she stayed on Earth. Being so far from it for an extended period of time was wearing on her. She had never before used her powers so much in such a short period of time. Time, however, was exactly what she didn't have. Finn's soul was growing dimmer each day, and his longing for death was nearly tangible.
Vivienne was doing everything she could to get him interested in the modern world. However, technology was far too advanced for him to even attempt to become savvy just yet, and the emotional overload was prioritized for the moment over his functional re-introduction into society. He found most of what Vivienne showed him interesting from what she could tell, but not even coffee or roller coasters was enough incentive for him to want to live. She had side-lined her attempts to grow closer to the rest of the Mikaelson siblings for the last month, to her dismay. But Finn needed – not her, really, but someone to at least watch him.
When Vivienne looked at Finn, she couldn't help but detest Niklaus just a little bit. It was an unwelcome feeling, seeing as Niklaus was actually her favori –
Fuck. Nope. That was a thought she would suppress for the next thousand years.
Anyway, nobody deserved to be locked away and taken from everything they loved simply because they were an inconvenience to his plans. However, she was certain she was close to finding the thing she believed could convince Finn Mikaelson to avoid pursuing his own demise.
Vivienne straightened her posture and took deep, even breaths to calm herself and prepare for the next step in her journey. The witch laying across the couch beside her had been quite helpful and voluntary in her part to help Vivienne, though for the next few hours the mortal would be incapacitated. However Vivienne had to look away from the unconscious person just a second later. If she allowed herself to think too deeply about what it was she was doing, she might not find the conviction to continue.
She had used the mind blending process on three willing and fourteen unwilling individuals in the last six days.
It was – sickening, perhaps, was the closest word she could use to describe it. Mind blending had been created as an ability of the Rusalka for a very functional purpose: souls that wished to find peace could share memories and information with their guide so that the correct dimension for them could be found. Instead Vivienne was now using it as a weapon, a form of mental assault to gather information on a certain individual.
Goddamn it. The witch had been a lovely help and embarked on the mind blend willfully, probably intrigued by her more than actually eager to aid Vivienne. But if the information she had just garnered was not fruitful, she would have to begin her search anew. This witch had been a dead end of sorts.
After taking another minute to gauge her energy level, Vivienne took a deep breath and teleported to the location that she had just been given.
Sage stared down at the instruction manual to the new cable box she'd hooked up, attempting to piece it together. It said that the –
"Oh, thank god. I have no idea if I could have rallied to start all over again."
Sage quickly turned, facing the person in her living room. It was a young woman who looked entirely too relieved to be seeing a 900 year old vampire, especially since Sage had no idea who the fuck she was and intended to find out.
Before she could rush over, however, the woman simply vanished before suddenly appearing just beside her.
"I'm Vivienne, I'm here to bring you to Finn Mikaelson."
And then the world around her disappeared.
Rebekah wandered into the kitchen, fairly at ease after a good night's sleep, and poured herself the rest of the coffee in the pot. Coffee had been the first thing that Vivienne had introduced her to, and after tasting it herself Rebekah now understood how someone could miss the beverage for one thousand years. The demon in question was seated at the breakfast bar, neatly cutting the sections out of the grapefruit half that was in front of her.
Without really thinking about it, Rebekah glanced around to see where Finn could be. Vivienne had been practically glued to his hip the last few weeks, to her amusement. Finn seemed like he didn't really know how to deal with the woman and often grew flustered when she acted like the women of the twenty first century, behavior that would have been scandalous a millennia ago.
On the bright side, Vivienne being attached to Finn's side had allowed Rebekah to see Nik's jealous side emerge, something always quite humorous. Especially since neither Nik nor Vivienne seemed to actually realize what was going on.
It was like some sort of 'rom-com'. Nik and Vivienne had been getting on each other's nerves for the first few weeks that their family had settled in New Orleans, with Nik making a fuss over the woman's involvement with his life. And of course the second Vivienne shifted her focus to someone else – and especially Finn, who she knew Niklaus saw as his opposite – he threw a fit. Well, his version of a fit. Which meant that he made sure to try to get on Vivienne's nerves whenever he saw her. It was astonishingly like watching children deal with their first bout of infatuation.
Sipping at her coffee slowly, Rebekah let out a content hum before wandering over to where Vivienne sat and perching beside her.
"So where is Finn? You've been attached to him for a while."
With an equally relaxed and nonchalant tone Vivienne responded, "He's out to brunch with Sage and catching up."
Rebekah clapped her hand over her mouth, utterly devoid of composure as she struggled not to spit out her coffee. When she finally swallowed her mouthful and concluded that she had not spilled anything, she turned and flicked Vivienne's arm while saying, "He's with the peasant whore? How on Earth –"
Vivienne tensed, and any lightness or ease she'd had before vanished. In a cold tone she cut in and said, "It wasn't like he just happened upon the woman he loves. I had to bust my ass to make this happen. So if you do anything to disrupt this, I will be very upset."
Rebekah was honestly a bit taken aback by Vivienne's words. Vivienne hadn't really presented herself as threatening in a while, instead seeming to do the opposite and immersed herself into human culture. But the dark look in her eye – something that became literal when a second later her eyes turned entirely black and demonic – was inhuman.
"Why would I do something to disrupt them?"
Vivienne snorted and turned back to her breakfast, taking a large bite of grapefruit and gulp of her own coffee before answering.
"It was more of a general address, I should have saved it for more than just you. We both know Niklaus will get twitchy at yet another variable he can't control thrown in to New Orleans as he plots his takeover."
Rebekah felt a coy smile cover her face and teased, "So now that you're done with Finn you'll go back to Nik? He'll be pleased."
Vivienne looked – fairly shocked, actually. Her eyes reverted back to their normal appearance and she seemed at a loss for words. After she straightened herself up, however, she responded in a forced tone of nonchalance.
"I have no idea why you would imply anything about myself and Niklaus. I am his protector, same as any of you. If anything, he likes me the least."
At that, Rebekah finally began laughing. To her delight, Vivienne seemed to grow even more flustered. Before Rebekah could make another comment, Vivienne lurched up from her seat and said, "I've got to run a few errands. I'll see you later today."
She was gone before Rebekah could so much as say another word.
But this? This could be fun. Rebekah hadn't had a chance to play match-maker in a century.
Hello everyone, I've gone back and added the translations to the Old Norse used in the second chapter. I'm sorry for the delay, work kicked my ass majorly this past month. I'll be updating more frequently from here on out. As always, let me know what you think!