CHAPTER 22 – THE WITCH BITCH RETURNS

"Breathe Rebekah, we're gonna make it to the dance," Rhiannon yelled into her phone trying to drown out Rebekah's banter. "You really think I'd miss it?"

"Right, great," she muttered into her phone, a little ashamed. "You already got your outfit?"

"Damn right I do," Rhiannon retorted stuffing the last of her clothes into her suitcase and glaring at Elijah who snickered at the conversation with his baby sister from behind his newspaper. "You think Elijah has any of his suits from the 20s?"

That got his attention, making him choke on his coffee and now it was Rhiannon's turn to snicker at him.

"You honestly think you can convince Elijah to go to a high school decade dance?" Rebekah asked, her words drooping with sarcasm. "Hate to burst your bubble, but hell will freeze over before he agrees to that."

"Ha, hundred bucks says I'll convince him," Rhiannon retorted making Elijah glare at her. He was in a deep trouble now and he knew it.

"Easiest hundred bucks I'll ever win," Rebekah quipped playfully. "By all means, go ahead and try. It would to him good to get rid of that giant stick that's lodged up his arse."

"We're almost on our way to the airport," Rhiannon retorted, trying hard not to burst out laughing. Elijah sure was uptight as hell, but not around her. At least not anymore.

"You're not really going to make me go to the dance are you?" Elijah asked with a dread in his voice. She didn't have a chance to respond, since her phone rang once more.

"It's Matt," Rhiannon muttered, worried. "I should take this."

"Hey," the quarterback greeted her after she picked up the phone.

"What do you got for me?" she asked with a knot in her stomach.

"So you know we killed Finn last night do you?" Matt started. "And after that all of his bloodline started dying out too."

"Yea," Rhiannon muttered giving Elijah one worried look. "Go on."

"Well Damon is desperately trying to find out who created his and Stefan's bloodline," Matt started making Rhiannon's blood boil with rage once again. "There's still one stake out there and if they get their hands on it and it turns out that Klaus didn't sire their bloodline, they're still going to try to take him down."

"Shit," Rhiannon muttered. "Anything else?"

"Yea, Tyler's back in town," Matt retorted. "Says he broke the sire bond."

"Alright," Rhiannon muttered, her voice strained, and saying "forget we had this conversation," she ended the call.

"Rhiannon," Elijah murmured looking at her from the other side of the room. His eyes wide with genuine fear.

"Did you - ?" she started but couldn't finish the sentence.

"Sire their bloodline?" Elijah finished for her. "No."

"Well what if it wasn't Klaus who sired them?" she asked pacing around in panic.

"Rhiannon –" Elijah tried to stop her rambling.

"They're gonna try and kill him and if they succeed, I'm done too," she continued. "I'm sure I'm not on their list of loved ones to protect them anymore. Oh god."

"Rhiannon!" Elijah yelled at her, grabbing her by her shoulders and shaking her lightly, making her snap out of it. "Calm down. It was Klaus who sired their bloodline, I know that for a fact. They're never going to go against him. You're safe, sweetheart."

"Are you sure?" she asked looking up at him.

"Positive," he murmured, giving her a small smile. "You have nothing to worry about."

"I'll believe that when the last stake is destroyed," Rhiannon muttered burying her face in his chest. As if on cue, Elijah's phone rang.

"It's Rebekah," he muttered answering the phone not letting go of her as she grabbed at lapels of his jacket nervously.

"Elijah," his younger sister said. "We found the last stake. It's destroyed. We're safe."

"Thank god," Elijah muttered tightening his grip on Rhiannon.

"Are you coming home?" Rebekah asked. Rhiannon looked at Elijah incredulously. They spoke together not half hour ago and she told her they were practically on their way to the airport. She shrugged it off as a result of an eventful evening.

"Yes, we're on our way Bekah," Elijah retorted hanging up the phone.

"I'm almost ready!" Rhiannon yelled through the closed door of their bathroom, making some finishing touches to her outfit. She arranged her head into a faux curly bob, finishing it with a gorgeous jeweled head band, Elijah gave her along with sparkling art-deco earrings. Her make-up was intense and daring, perfectly matching her black beaded dress that sparkled with every move she made, just like the true flapper. She was beyond excited about this particular dance, not just because it sounded like a lot of fun, but also because she was going with Elijah. It turned out that he didn't need that much convincing after all. She was touching up her crimson red lipstick when Elijah walked in wearing his period suit, his hair slicked back, looking as dapper as ever. He stopped dead in his tracks, admiring the view in front of him.

"Wow," he muttered making Rhiannon smirk at him.

"Wow yourself," she retorted putting one hand on her hip looking him up and down.

They arrived to the dance just as a slow swing song started to play and before Rhiannon had enough time to admire the decorated gym, Elijah swept her to the dance floor. Holding her as close as possible he hummed with along with the song contently, placing a chaste kiss on her forehead.

"Thank you for coming here with me tonight," Rhiannon muttered laying her head on his chest.

"It's my pleasure," he muttered twirling her around.

"I had no idea Klaus would be coming to the dance as well," Rhiannon muttered pointing to Elijah's younger brother who was currently dancing with Caroline who looked a little uncomfortable to say the least.

"I'm sure that's Rebekah's work," Elijah said chuckling under his breath. "Where is she by the way? I haven't seen her all evening."

"I have no idea," Rhiannon retorted. "I haven't seen her in the house as well."

"I don't like it," Elijah said. "There's Klaus," he said pointing towards his brother who stormed out of the gym.

They caught up with him just as he was stopped at the sight of a salt line that was stretching around the entire school.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is," Rhiannon muttered weakly.

"I wish I could," Elijah said squeezing her hand.

"Guess who's back," Stefan chimed in.

"Esther," Klaus muttered in horror.

"Well damn," Rhiannon summed up the situation.

They were all standing in a darkened classroom watching Bonnie chant over the candles trying to find the loophole in Esther's spell.

"She does this all the time, doesn't she?" Jamie, Bonnie's date, asked with a concern in his voice.

"What's taking so long?" Klaus asked impatiently. "All boundary spells have a loophole."

"People are walking right out of the dance," Matt said walking into the classroom. "Right past the barrier."

"Well if Matt and I can leave we can stop Esther ourselves," Jeremy suggested. "We just gotta find out where she is."

"That's suicide Jeremy," Stefan retorted.

"Suicide would be disappointing me," Klaus chimed in vamp-speeding towards Jamie and grabbing him by his throat. "Now work your magic witch."

"Knock it off Klaus!" Rhiannon yelled starting towards him but Elijah beat her to it, grabbing his brother and shoving him away from the poor guy, muttering threateningly: "Control yourself brother. You really think she'll help us if you kill her date?" he said turning around and smiling at Bonnie who was glaring right back at him. "Now, Bonnie, how about a little locator spell?"

"Please Bon," Rhiannon pleaded. "We have to find them before it's too late."

Soon they knew Esther's location when Bonnie announced that Esther's not fighting her anymore. That could mean that either something good or something bad happened. Minutes later they were all walking away from the dance and towards the old cemetery. When they arrived there, Esther was dead and Alaric, being himself for the time being, was in a transition to a vampire as strong as any of the Originals, if not stronger. Luckily he decided to not go through with it and die. Elijah was glad he made the decision, so they didn't have to kill him themselves and turn the Mystic Falls supernatural residence against them for good.

Klaus grabbed Esther's body and bolted. Both Elijah and Rhiannon felt as if they were intruding on the last moments of Alaric's life so they decided to leave as well.

"What a night," Rhiannon muttered, sitting on the bed and knocking off her heels.

"Indeed," Elijah said loosening his tie then walking towards her, massaging her feet lightly almost making her purr.

"I can't help but feel sorry for Alaric," she muttered sadly.

"I know," Elijah retorted scooting closer to her and put one arm around her, stroking her cheek with the other lightly. "He doesn't deserve what Esther did to him."

"No, he doesn't," Rhiannon agreed, trying to hold back tears. "I wonder what happened to Rebekah."

"She's back," Elijah muttered into her hair. "She's in her room, moping."

"Well I'm glad she's okay," she said. "And your mother's gone. At least for now. We're safe."

"We're safe," Elijah repeated.