The Rise of the Mikaelson Witches

Elena was in her new room in New Orleans unpacking her things. It had been about a year since her family had made a reluctant deal with Mikael. In that time, Elena had learned to harness her power. She'd been taught a great deal by Kol and Finn. Neither had magic of their own anymore, but they had the knowledge of how to use it. They had even tutored Bonnie a little bit as well.

After a year, Elena had almost flawless control over her magic. Her father had finally deemed her well-versed enough in it to begin working to save Freya and stop Dahlia. Elena had done a locator spell for Freya and found out that she was in New Orleans.

When Elena revealed to her family that Freya was in New Orleans, the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife. No one would really tell her what it was about, but she could tell that her family members had history in this town. Most of them didn't want to come to New Orleans, but they knew they had no choice.

Elena soon heard a knock at the door. "Come in."

Rebekah entered the room moments later. "Hey. How is the unpacking coming along?"

"Okay. This house is huge. It's even bigger than our place in Mystic Falls," Elena said.

Rebekah chuckled. "This is nothing. You should've seen the last place we lived when we were in this city."

"I had a feeling you guys lived here before. I'm guessing your time here has something to do with the tension I felt when I told you all this was where we had to come, and why you and Uncle Nik immediately started glaring at Mikael, more so than usual," Elena said.

Rebekah sighed before walking further into the room and closing the door. "You may as well know. I'm fairly certain it's going to come out at some point. Nik's not going to be able to hold it in much longer. We loved this place. It was our home, but then Mikael found us." She neglected to mention that it was her fault. She would never forgive herself for what she did or the damage it caused.

"I get the feeling it's a little more complicated than that. I'm sure he forced you out of a lot places," Elena said.

"Yes, but this was different. A lot of damage was done. Mikael killed someone we cared about, especially Nik and me. There was a boy that Nik took in. He loved him the same way that your father loves you and Jeremy. I came to love him too, but in a different way," Rebekah explained.

"I get it," Elena said.

"It's a long story, but Mikael killed him when he came after us," Rebekah said.

"Then I admire the restraint you've shown towards Mikael. I'm sorry. I know it can't be easy to work with him under those circumstances," Elena said sadly.

"We'll do whatever it takes to protect you and save Freya, even work with someone like Mikael. After we're done, all bets are off," Rebekah said.

Just then, there was another knock at the door.

"Yeah?" Elena asked.

Jenna opened the door moments later. "Hey. Jeremy and I are going to go explore the town. You wanna come?"

Elena smiled at her aunt. She was so glad her aunt had decided to come with them. It took some persuasion, but her dad managed to convince her that it would be safer if they were all together. He had been worried that one of his enemies might come after Jenna if he wasn't there. "No, I think I'm going to stay here. I wanna finish unpacking and then try another locator spell."

"Okay. We'll see you soon," Jenna said before closing the door once more.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Elena was in the living room of their new home beginning her locator spell. She'd used her blood as well as the blood of her father and her aunt and uncle's to make it more powerful. It was similar to the locator spell that Bonnie had done to find her once, but it was much more powerful.

Elena muttered the incantation and let the blood do its job. Unfortunately, it just kept circling the entire city of New Orleans. "Damn it! Come on, I need more than that!"

"Don't get frustrated. It won't do you any good," Elijah said as he put a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"It doesn't make any sense. I've gotten more precise locations before," Elena said.

"Maybe she's cloaked. I imagine Dahlia doesn't want anyone to find them," Kol said.

Elena contemplated that for a moment. "That makes sense. It feels like something's blocking me. How do I get around it though? This isn't like Mystic Falls. I can't just guess which location Freya's in. This city is huge."

"We have time. We will find her," Elijah assured his daughter.

Elena tried to think of another way, and she had one, but she knew her family members would not like it, especially her father. "Maybe if I use enough power, I can draw…"

"No," Elijah said before she could even finish. He knew his daughter well. He knew exactly what she had in mind.

"You didn't even let me finish," Elena protested.

"Because I know what goes on in that self-sacrificing head of yours. You are not going to use yourself as bait to draw Dahlia out. We will find another way to locate Freya," Elijah said firmly.

"Back in the day, there was a faction of witches in this city. I'm sure there still is. Perhaps one of them can help us," Kol suggested.

"It's an idea for the future, but I don't want to risk it just yet. If Dahlia is here, we don't know if any of the New Orleans witches might be working with her. This is only our first day back in the city. We have time to figure out our next move," Elijah said.

Elena nodded. "Alright, I think Jenna and Jeremy had the right idea. I think I'm going to go for a walk."

"Please be careful," Elijah said. He didn't like the idea of her going out alone anymore than he liked it when Jenna and Jeremy left alone, but he realized that he couldn't keep his family in a bubble.

"I will," Elena promised before getting up and heading out of the room. She walked out the front door and started walking. It was about ten minutes when she felt a presence following her. It wasn't long after that that she realized it was vampires.

Elena sighed in annoyance. She wasn't worried, but she was kind of irritated. She had taken this walk to get rid of her frustrations, not to add to them, and a bunch of vampires following her definitely added to her frustrations.

Elena walked into an ally to try to avoid any human casualties. "Should we get this over with? You're not fooling anyone."

Moments later, dozens of vampires appeared on either side of Elena. Then a group of them moved aside to let the person she could only guess was their leader through. He was African American and looked to be in his mid-twenties. He radiated power, or at least he thought he did. He had a smug look about him, but Elena was unconcerned.

"A vampire gang. That's a first for me. What do you want?" Elena asked.

"Who are you?" the leader asked.

"You first," Elena countered.

He ignored her inquiry as though she never spoke. "I know every witch in the Quarter, but I've never seen you before, and you've just broken my biggest rule."

Elena snorted. So, he had rules. He apparently thought he was some kind of ruler or something. "Rules, huh? Sorry, I didn't get the memo, and if I did, I probably would've ignored it."

"No magic is to be performed in the Quarter. Your witch friends should've told you that and that I have ways of finding out when witches perform magic here. It's punishable by death. I know you're new here and probably didn't know, but, unfortunately, I have to make an example out of you," he said before motioning for his people to attack her.

Elena scoffed before flicking her wrist, causing every single vampire, aside from their leader, to break their necks and fall to the ground unconscious. She then smirked at the egomaniac they followed, who had just lost his smirk. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Could you repeat that?"