I Do Not Own Vampire Diaries/The Originals/Legacies
Vincent Griffith did not know what to make of Davina Claire.
She wasn't what he was expecting for a Harvest Girl. Not just because of the soul complication, but her overall demeanor. Coven's, in his experience, did not create girls like Davina Claire. She wasn't unwaveringly confident, no, but the girl was fiery, she was feisty, witty, determined, and unwavering, she didn't have unwavering faith in the Ancestors, but she did in Kol Mikaelson.
In general, the girl wasn't what he was expecting, she was that naïve sixteen-year-old, but she was also so worldly or determined to learn.
The other girl was nothing spectacular, even for an all-powerful Bennett witch. He knew the older girl's magic was suffering, but it was also reconnecting, and regrowing. It was like someone had reached into that girl and torn out all her magic by the roots, and now she was relearning, recultivating her magic. No doubt when she was grown up, she would be impressive like the other Bennetts, but he didn't see her as impressive.
Davina Claire though was a surprise; she made him curious. Which was the only reason he had driven out to the plantation address she had given him to meet her and Bonnie at.
Slowly getting out of his car he looked around the massive estate, he knew this place vaguely; Magnolia Mist Plantation, historic, iconic, and a still functioning plantation here in Louisiana. No one in the city knew who owned it, merely that it was well maintained and one of the bigger plantations around. He was surprised to see a few bottles hanging on a tree, their greens and blues were glittering in the morning light. Shutting the door of the car he slowly moved over the gravel, he was wary of this place.
A tall dark vampire he recognized walked out of the house with a charming smile in place; all his white teeth displayed threateningly.
"I don't believe we've been introduced," Marcel said.
"I know who you are," Vincent sneered as he cut off the vampire. "Marcel Gerard, King of the Quarter."
"Well, I don't know you, and even though my kid invited you to help her, I don't trust you," Marcel said with a threatening charm that Vincent was certain would have others crumbling.
"Vincent!" Davina appeared then as she slipped fearlessly around Marcel. Vincent was startled when Davina hugged his waist without hesitation. "I wanted to do that yesterday, but you smelled terrible!"
"D!"
"Marcel, this is Vincent," Davina said as she released him and smiled at the vampire. Vincent was frozen with shock as he looked between the tiny girl then at the fuming vampire and then back. "I knew him in my time, I'm glad we got him now!"
"What! Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he sputtered.
"This is Davina Claire, you've been formally adopted by her, so I wish you luck trying to escape it, and I'll tolerate you," Marcel sighed in exasperation.
"WHAT!?" Vincent bellowed as Davina grabbed his arm and dragged him after her.
"Davina's from the future, or a part of her is, and she's been collecting people she knows and loves to come back with her, I can't reason with the girl, but you're officially in if she'd decided to hug you," Marcel shrugged.
"That doesn't… it doesn't…"
"Don't try to reason or logic your way out of whatever scheme she's about to drag you into, trust me, it's futile," a very pale brunette appeared with hazel eyes.
"You good Hayley?" Marcel asked.
"I'll be fine. I'm going into town," she said as she walked past him. Vincent did a double take of the young woman but dismissed the thought as preposterous and impossible.
"Wait, I'm not, no," Vincent protested.
"You heard the lady, resistance is futile," Marcel sighed. "Marcel Gerard."
"Vincent Griffith," he replied as they shook. He was too dumbstruck to care that he was talking with a vampire or to a vampire or whatever else was going on this, was by far the second strangest day. Yesterday was the winner of weirdest day in his life. "I'm not…"
"Good luck, but if you harm my girl, just know I'll make your life hell, and if for some reason I fail, Kol won't. D, I have business to attend to, I will see you later," Marcel said as he hugged the small girl and left.
"Coffee?" Davina asked him with a bright smile.
"Sure," he nodded.
"Hey, we didn't really talk yesterday, I'm Bonnie," the other girl said as she walked up to him.
"Yeah, I remember," he muttered.
"Great," she smiled tightly.
"How'd you end up in this mess?"
"Oh, I didn't initially mean to," Bonnie answered. "Davina met my friends and I when she was hunting for Kol, and when she found out I was practicing Expression she decided to teach me so I wouldn't do that anymore."
"Expression!?" he gaped at her.
"Yeah, I know, it's bad, I learned the hard way," she sighed.
"Who the hell is crazy enough to teach it to you!" he bellowed.
"A professor intent on raising Silas," she grimaced.
"Silas!?"
"Kol and I already killed him, so he's not a worry, here you are," Davina said as she handed him his coffee. He sipped it and was surprised to find the rights amounts of honey and cream in it which had him raising a brow as he looked down to the shorter witch.
"How'd you…?"
"I got the cure, Kol shoved it down Silas' throat, but Silas bit me, so I was knocked out when Kol threw me out of Silas' reach." She held up her arm to reveal the puckered red and violet skin that was a violent contrast to her pale skin.
"What the hell," he muttered.
"We killed him!" she smiled. "Onto the next problem, I need your help," she repeated from yesterday.
"About the Harvest and the Ancestors?" he guessed.
"Yup, but first, after coffee, we're going to go get those kids, so you know I'm not full of shit." He was surprised at how she read him, and how certain she was that he thought she was full of shit despite her soul problem.
"How do you know where the kids are?"
"It's where your wife took me last time. Now, I'm not one hundred percent certain about the location, but a little divination and possible memory recovery, and we'll be on our merry way," she admitted.
"How are you so calm about this?" he asked.
"Lots of practice, and I'm on a time crunch, sooner we retrieve the kids, the sooner you believe and help me, the sooner we can move onto the Ancestor problem, and you'll be in good standing with your Coven again to be Regent and perform the Harvest so I'm not dead-dead. I'll go get a map!"
"Is she always this way?"
"It's worse when she has Kol there to either be her back up or lead, then they just bulldoze everyone," Bonnie informed him seriously.
"I can hear you!" Davina shouted from elsewhere in the house. "And you're supposed to be practicing your connection!"
Bonnie groaned as she went to leave.
"Be happy you're reconnecting; I know of no one who recovers their magic after going to Expression." He warned.
"I know! And I am! But playing with candle flames seems tedious rather than useful, compared to everything Davina and Kol are doing," Bonnie admitted.
He chuckled as she walked off then. Davina reappeared with her own coffee and gestured for him to follow her, which had him walking through this grand house. It was so light, and airy, so elegant even.
"You know that toying with time will have consequences, right?" he asked her.
"Yup," she answered.
"For starters, there's two me's in this body, Big and Little me, and neither me is particularly thrilled about the Harvest that we have to participate in. I've also turned my partner in crime, who was an indestructible, immortal Original the first time around, Kol, back into a witch this time, no idea how that one happened because last time I just spent a lot of time trying to get him back from the dead, not turn him into a witch. I killed Silas this time around, so I'm sure there'll be repercussions for that, somewhere down the line. I've somehow acquired a Bennett witch who has declared Kol and I her Coven, that'll go over with the Ancestors swimmingly when I do die in the Reaping.
"I found Hayley early, fully got adopted by Marcel this time; legally and everything, and I reached out to you early; there's probably going to be a cosmic combustion for those happening now. Oh, and I left New Orleans for about the first month and a half after the Harvest, which is catching up to me in full, because I keep drawing the same nonsense from last time now that I'm back in New Orleans. I'm also breaking the curse on Hayley's werewolf pack, which will no doubt have ramifications somewhere along the line.
"And I'm working with Kol and the Gemini Coven against Travelers, so I'm sure there'll be consequences for that alliance but I'm not sure I care yet, because nothing can be as foolish as the Mystic Falls gang I met when I left New Orleans.
"They are the reason I ended up hunting Silas with Kol! They wanted a cure off of Silas for one selfish little teen who was moping about being a vampire, boo-hoo, adapt and move on or don't and die. But hell, what do I know? Maybe she deserves to be human, maybe she doesn't, but I'm not letting a bunch of imbeciles bring Silas back to the land of the living to appease her. Desires of one person versus the world still spinning, I'd pick keeping the world still spinning, personally.
"However, despite all the rash, impulsive additional things to my original plan, I have a Honey To-Do List, and it's getting done one way or another," she warned. "And I don't give a damn about the cost because the first time around the cost was far too high, and I won't let them pay it."
"You are insane," he breathed.
"Probably, or I'm just not caffeinated enough yet, I'm not sure which at this point," she admitted with a wildness to her smile, and a wily look in her eye as she looked at her coffee.
He felt his lips twitch as he looked at the young teen. "You're not the normal sort of witch."
"Nope," she agreed. "So, now that you're here, we'll go find those kids."
"In your time…?"
"You were like a big brother to me, one of my dearest friends, and Regent of New Orleans, we destroyed the Ancestors the first time around," she said.
"What?" he sputtered.
"Long story, I'll tell it to you after we get the kids back," she said as she laid out a map and walked to a trunk.
"What are you doing?"
"Kol's got some fun toys that'll make this easier, so I don't have to tap into the power within me," she said as she rummaged. "The more I use that magic, the faster I die, and I have things to do, as I've said."
Vincent kind of like this girl, she was just shrewd enough to beat the Ancestors at their own game, and anyone willing to do the right thing; despite it not being easy, was worth helping in his mind. He had seen enough evil and cruelty consulting for the police to know there's evils out there and people didn't always do the right thing against it.
"I'll help. Use my power," he offered.
She turned and blinked her large blue eyes at him as she innocently assessed him. He smiled a bit.
"Been a long time, Davina Claire, since someone did the right thing despite it being the hard thing. I'll help you," he assured her levelly. "And I'd be happy to join a Coven not dictated by Ancestors or politics," he chuckled.
"We're not a Coven."
"Seems like a Coven to me," he said with a smile. "I'm willing to join to do right."
Kol groaned as he stuffed his head under the pillow and tried to hide from the sun filtering through the cheap motel's blinds. He knew thinking about the Davina problem and drinking was a bad idea, but it had seemed like a good one at the time. His mouth felt like cotton, and his head felt like there was dwarves hammering away in his skull; he was just going to lay here and die. This was a good way to go, he figured, not his ideal way; especially in a bed too small for him with his feet hanging off the edge, but a good way nonetheless, and preferable to last time when his father had run him through with a sword.
Mikael had killed him first, Kol had just begun to catch onto what their mother had done when their father had stabbed him in the back, literally with his sword.
The ringing of his phone had him reassessing his preferred death method as he groaned and hid further under the pillow. It'd been a thousand years since he'd even had a bloody hangover. Fumbling for his phone he answered.
"Hello, love, what is it?" he grumbled. He had seen Davina's photo on his caller ID.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Big or Little You right now?" he grunted as he rolled a bit to hide further under his pillow.
"Little."
"It's called a hangover, love, I'm fine," he promised.
"Oh. I was just calling to tell you Vincent is here and he's joining our 'team', and he and I are going to go find the kids his wife abducted," she informed him.
"Mmmm," he hummed and sat up, wincing at the light. "Stay safe, I'm hunting Travelers, I'll be back tonight or tomorrow, probably tomorrow," he admitted as he squinted at the clock. Elijah was sleeping in the other bed. The bottle of bourbon was discarded on the nightstand.
"Alright, I'll see you then," she said.
"And love," he called her attention back to him before he hung up.
"Yeah?" she chirped.
"Be safe," he stressed. "You're not dying until we have this soul problem sorted out."
"I'll be safe," she promised.
"Good, I'll see you tomorrow," he assured her as he hung up.
"You know she's the only one you call 'love'," Elijah muttered from where he was sleeping.
"Not helping, where's the bloody Tylenol?" he asked as he dragged himself out of the bed. Getting a shower and a shave he felt normal enough to get dressed and leave the room for Elijah to prepare for the day, his brother had always taken more time preening than Kol ever could. Anyone who said differently had never lived with Elijah.
He had barely seated himself at the diner when Luke and Liv materialized, Luke sat across from him while Liv sidled up to his side, almost like she were attempting to get as close as she could.. Liv was wearing some noxious perfume which had him wanting to hurl in a garbage can and was amplifying his hangover.
"Darling, not that you're not lovely, but go sit away from me, whatever you're wearing is aggravating my hangover," he warned before she could open her mouth to speak. The waitress walked up to them.
"What can I get started for you honey?" she asked with a smile.
"Coffee, black, sausage, eggs and hash browns," he grumbled. He gestured at the twins who took the invitation to order. He didn't hear their orders as he rubbed his brow and prayed for death, by all the gods, he had forgotten how miserable hangovers were. It wasn't like being a vampire where it took the entire bar to even get slightly buzzed, but then again, he had sort of abused his magic last night by replenishing the bourbon on multiple times so this was probably retribution from the spirits.
"Are you alright?" Luke asked him.
"I'll be fine," he waved off. "The spell you two will be using is Egyptian," he said as he pulled his half-scribbled note from his pocket. I'll work on it in more detail with you two after breakfast."
"We don't practice Egyptian," Luke said.
"The Gemini Coven does," he said as he pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed carefully so his stomach didn't revolt on him.
Once he had some food and coffee in his system, he was sure he'd be fine. In his day all it took was food for him to recover from hangovers. Finn could drink them all under the table back in their human days.
"Part of the coven, before they were the famed Gemini Coven, was from Egypt, your coven begins somewhere at city known as Heracleion by the Greeks and Thonis by the Egyptians. I know this particular trapping spell is your Coven's because I found it on a dig in Egypt back in the eighteenth century and discussed it later with your great-grandmother. It's a useful spell, it'll also remove a Traveler soul from a Passenger into an object of our choosing, and I don't have to attempt to teach you Seidr. It also takes out groups of Travelers rather than doing it one at a time, so if we do this right, we can trap the entire group without having to hunt them all down," he said.
He flashed a pained smile when the waitress came up with his coffee; he'd have kissed the woman and wept for joy if that didn't seem wildly out of character for him when she poured him a piping hot mug of much needed coffee. And Thor save him, he now felt like Davina's addiction was rubbing off on him.
"I can't read Egyptian," Liv said.
"I'm going to teach you two the spell," he sighed as he closed his eyes in bliss at the bitter taste of the coffee. It was soothing. "I'm not requiring you know how to read it, merely you know how to say it properly, so you don't suck our souls out of our bodies."