Sophia's POV
I woke up to an empty bed the next morning which wasn't a strange occurrence these days as Nik barely slept past sunrise so I just got up, showered and dressed before I went in search of him and as usual I found him in his art studio room painting.
"Well that's a little dark" I pointed out and he turned to smile at me. "Rebekah been back yet?"
"No" he replied and that made me frown.
"She's been gone all night" I looked down at my phone ready to call her. "Maybe I should-" I cut myself off when I felt the presence behind me and saw that it was Rebekah. "What took you so long?" I questioned.
"Alaric didn't want to hand over the stake" she replied then held it up. "Luckily I'm quite the charmer" I raised an eye as she walked towards Nik since something just didn't feel right.
"That's it?" Nik asked with a smile at the sight of the last white oak stake but I was more curious on why it had taken her so long to get it, I get vampires couldn't enter the cave in which Alaric had hidden it and he could have holed up inside but she'd literally tried to burn Elena out which meant she wasn't opposed to hurt someone especially when it involved the white oak stakes.
"Last of the white oak stakes that can kill us" I stared at the stake in her hands with a tiny shred of reserve wondering if it could be a fake. "Do you want do the honors or should I?" she asked and Nik smiled taking it from her before tossing it into the fireplace behind us and as I watched it burn I couldn't help the feeling in my gut that this wasn't quite right, that it wasn't over. "Well that's that then"
"Pack your bags, we're leaving" Nik suddenly spoke up making Rebekah pause her leave and even I turned towards him surprised since I thought he wanted to stay here.
"Today?" Bekah asked.
"Why not, there's nothing keeping us here" Nik replied and my face fell a little because there was something here and no matter how hard I tried to deny it and fight the feelings, a part of me was loving having my brothers in my life even with the relationship we have now. "We'll grab the doppelganger and be off by sunset" my face turned into a glare since I didn't want that bitch to come with us.
"But tonight's the decade dance" Rebekah whined and I felt for her considering she's missed all the past dances because of the doppelbitch and my brothers.
"So?" Nik asked her.
"So I'm head of the committee, we have to go" I smiled at her since it actually sounded like fun and she'd told me the decade she'd changed the teenagers dance to was the 1920's, one of my favorite time periods spent with them.
"I'm not going to any dance"
"It sounds like fun Nik" I cut in smiling at him.
"Please, I have big plans for tonight" Bekah added and we both stared at him. "Just go for us" she begged him.
"Ok fine, one last hurrah" Nik finally agreed making my smile widen.
"One last hurrah, Nik" Bekah smiled and we all smiled at each other before she left and I walked towards Nik putting my arms around his shoulders.
"You know you loved the 20's, this'll be fun"
"Mm seeing you in a flapper dress is motivation enough" I laughed shaking my head at him.
"I'll get our outfits sorted, I'm sure we both have something appropriate packed up somewhere" I leant in kissing him for a few short seconds before I pulled away and headed upstairs going through some boxes that never got unpacked mostly because they held out of date clothes that Nik and I had accumulated over the years and I smiled when I found the perfect suit for him and one I remembered fondly of him looking dapper in so I pulled it out for him and luckily majority of my flapper dresses were in the same box so I picked out a black flapper dress which had intricately beaded black mesh boasts, black iridescent sequins and small black beads wrought in flourishing swirls and spirals that didn't look so bad and grabbed a gold beaded headband to match.
I immediately started getting ready by showering before starting on my hair and make-up first which took me around two hours just to get my hair up into a style that matched the 1920's and kept my make-up simple except for the bright red lips before I slipped into the dress and it's matching accessories with pointed black two inch heels and during all this Nik had come in with 10 minutes to go before we had to be there to shower and change and I smiled at him as he approached me.
"You look beautiful"
"Your not so bad yourself my lover" I smirked at him before I took his arm and we headed down the stairs driving to the school since Rebekah was supposed to be meeting us there.
When we arrived the dance was in full swing meaning we were fashionably late, I scanned the crowd for Rebekah but noticed that she wasn't here confusing me since I'd expected her to be the first one here and the last to leave teaching these human teenagers what the 20's was actually like.
"I can't see Rebekah" I pointed out.
"I'm sure she's around bossing around some poor helpless lad, dance with me" I laughed when he suddenly twirled me in a circle with his hand holding mine above my head before he pulled me in close by my waist.
"I actually miss the 1920's, in the beginning it was quite a peaceful time, just you, me and Bekah but then my little brother and your father had to ruin the fun"
"We had fun afterwards"
"We were continuously on the move, we never stayed in one place for more than a week and when we finally did six years later in France it didn't end well, then there was the mess in Germany early 1930's with August-"
"I see your point love" he cut me off and I sighed laying my head against his chest as we danced before the tempo speed up and I smiled since we were here to have fun and that's what we did until he suddenly looked up and I followed his line of sight seeing Tyler.
Tyler had disappeared not long before the coffins had been returned and Nik had been furious since technically he didn't permit him to leave and the sire bond should have prevented him from doing so which was questionable so he excused himself and headed over with rolling my eyes and headed for the drinks table grabbing some watching as Nik danced with Caroline, I knew it was a way of testing Tyler's loyalty and a little petty power trick but I still hated the sight so I left the gym intending on finding Rebekah but I did not intend to literally bump into my twin as I turned a corner.
"What are you doing?" we both demanded at the same time glaring at each other before he huffed and went around me towards a classroom and for some stupid reason I followed him watching as he flipped the light on and the witch Bonnie pulled apart from her date turning to us.
"Sorry to spoil your seven minutes in heaven" Damon apologized and I rolled my eyes. "We have a problem" he gestured for Bonnie to follow him.
"What problem?" I asked as he started walking but he ignored me. "Oh that's mature Damon"
"Like you'd know anything about being mature Sophia" he snapped back making me roll my eyes but couldn't help a small twerk of my lips since the banter felt like old times.
"How about we both change that then and you tell me what's going on for once, we are after all family"
"Nope" he said and I rolled my eyes.
"Fine" I spat and walked away leaving him and headed back towards the dance but Nik suddenly came out and grabbed my arm walking for the exit to the school with his phone pressed to his ear.
"Rebekah call me back immediately, Sophia and I only came to this ridiculous dance because you begged me to and now you're nowhere to be found" I stopped pulling him to a stop as we looked down seeing a salt line which looked like it went around the school.
"What is this?" I asked reaching out and it felt like my hand pressed against a wall but there was nothing there, we couldn't cross over the salt line.
"Your mother's back" we suddenly heard and turned seeing Stefan behind us.
"Can nobody stay dead, I mean seriously" I huffed in annoyance since once again I'd known something was wrong and ignored it, when was I gonna learn not to ignore these damn feelings when it came to Nik's family.
We followed him back into the school where he led us to the cafeteria where Bonnie was already in the midst of a spell chanting with Damon, Elena's little brother and Bonnie's date was and we waited for whatever spell the teenage witch was doing to leave this stupid school.
"She does this all the time, right?" Bonnie's date asked but no one answered him.
"What's taking so long?" Nik demanded, patience was never his virtue and to be honest neither was it mine. "All boundary spells have a loophole" Bonnie looked up at him with a glare.
"People are walking right out of the dance, past the barrier" Matt suddenly said as he came in through the door behind us.
"Well, if Matt and I can leave we could stop Esther ourselves we just gotta find out where she is"
"Suicide, Jeremy" Stefan argued making me frown but before anyone can come up with a better idea Nik rushes toward Bonnie's date and starts to strangles him.
"Suicide would be disappointing me, now work your magic witch or I'll start killing people you fancy"
"Let him go" Bonnie spat stopping her spell.
"Not until you get us out of here" Nik retaliated.
"Ah don't be stupid Klaus, Bonnie doesn't give a damn about us the only reason she's helping right now is to save Caroline and Tyler, if you start killing the people she cares about she'll tell us all to go to hell" Stefan argued and Nik looked around meeting the witches eyes before he finally released the kid.
Since there wasn't any other choice and we couldn't break the barrier spell Bonnie went off to try and different approach with a locator spell instead and I followed her watching as she takes a map from the wall and puts it on a desk while Damon and Nik follow us in with Damon giving her a vial containing Jeremy's blood.
"Here Jeremy made a little gilbert blood donation for your locater spell"
"I have to do this with you three lurking over me?" Bonnie spat and I glared at her since I didn't trust her.
"You're still mad at me for what happened to Abby, let me apologize I'm sorry Elijah forced us to turn your mother into a vampire to save Elena's life, didn't exactly have a choice" I smirked at my twins snarky reply.
"There's always a choice, whenever you make one someone else suffers" the witch argued and I rolled my eyes since honestly that's how the world worked.
"Let's cut the dramatics and begin, shall we?" I snapped wanting this done before something else bloody happened other than my mother-in-law succeeding in whatever she was doing which was most likely going to kill Nik and me, she looks at me before she takes the vials from Damon's hand and pours the blood on the map and starts to cast the spell but the blood doesn't move.
"Esther's fighting me"
"Esther couldn't possibly have this much power" Nik pointed out and I turned to him furrowing my brows since what did that mean. "No, she's channeling something"
"A hotspot" Bonnie suggested and I watched Nik's eyes as something clinked in them.
"Get the humans ready, know where she is" he told them.
"Where?" I asked curiously.
"The old cemetery" he told them and Damon left to tell the others while Nik and I excused ourselves.
"How to do you know she's there?" I asked him as we walked outside.
"Because not far from there is where I killed my mother a thousand years ago" he explained and I huffed.
"Wish she'd stayed dead, the woman has more lives than a damn cockroach" I scoffed and he smiled laughing under his breath a little.
"Tonight I assure you will be the last time she dies, I'll make sure of it this time"
"If you don't I will" I smiled at him. "That bitch has tried to kill us too many times to count now and I refuse to continue the same damn cycle" he nodded and put his arm around my waist as we could do nothing but wait and eventually Stefan had come out and was annoyingly pacing behind us.
"You know this is your fault, you set us on this path when you released my mother" Nik spoke up speaking to Stefan. "I wonder if revenge will prove worth the cost"
"Oh I'm done with revenge" Stefan stated and I scoffed since that was quick. "As far as Esther, we've stopped her before we'll stop her again" Stefan replied making me raise an eye since when did they stop her...oh wait they killed and turned Bonnie's mother but who told them to...Elijah which meant they didn't stop her, Elijah did.
"We are strange bedfellows, you and I" Nik smirked letting go of my waist as he turned around to face Stefan. "You know, all of this reminds me of our time together in the twenties
"You say that like I'm supposed to have happy memories about it"
"Well there were moments, real friendship, brotherhood" Nik argued right as I saw Damon walk up.
"Oh he already has a brother, not to be you know territorial or anything" he glared at Nik and I rolled my eyes since if you wanted to be technical Damon then Nik was your brother-in-law.
"Oh no of course, the Salvatore's and their unshakeable bond" I turned to Nik a little surprised by that statement before my eyes found Damon's when he looked at me. "I wonder what'll happen when Elena finally makes her choice, will we see you shake just a little bit?" my look turned into a glare since that wasn't going to happen again if I had anything to do with it, I don't care if they hated me they were still my brothers and I wouldn't watch them fight over a girl again.
"It's done" Bonnie suddenly stated coming out of the school. "Esther's not fighting me anymore, the boundary spell is broken" Nik put his hand out testing it first before we nodded at each other and left heading for the cemetery already finding Esther dead since Alaric had stabbed her through the back.
Nik grabbed the body and we left heading back to the mansion where he put it in a coffin and I lifted up the lid of Rebekah's finding her desiccated body with a dagger sticking out of her chest making me let out a sigh of relief that she wasn't dead and I wasted no time wrapping my hand around the handle and pulled out the dagger putting it down on the table before I turned back to Beks.
"I'm sorry Beks, I should have known it wasn't you" I grabbed her hand squeezing it before I looked up seeing Nik standing over his mothers corpse.
"Your trap failed mother, I live and I will go on living" I frowned dropping Bekah's hand as I walked over and stood beside him. "Let your beloved spirits try to preserve you again, I dare you to come after me" I say we should just burn the body to ensure she never has anything to come back to. "I will build an army so big, no one will ever touch me my survival will haunt you through eternity, you will never destroy me!"
"It's over Nik" I touched his shoulder and turned him towards me before I placed my hand on his cheek. "She's gone and if she dares comes back again then I'll kill her, I'll do anything to protect you because I love you"
"I love you" he smiled quickly cupping my cheeks and smashed his lips against mine.
