✓ | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂, Stefan and Damon

Chapter 58

Sorry for this taking so long. The next chapter is the last one. I would make it 60 chapters but I'm lazy and want to get to the good shit already. This one is bigger than my past few chapters, so be aware of that. I'm pretty proud that it's longer. This book should be ending at around 84k words, larger than the average novel.

I wish that I could bring forth good news on this stupidly sunny day, but I seem to be in a perpetually terrible mood. Not only have I seemed to blow up every single thing I've tried to levitate, but all of my magical outbursts were starting to take a toll on my mental strength. Things had been fine one day and insane the next. Who was I kidding, I'm a Mikaelson, we bring destruction wherever we go. It was only a matter of time before things started to go south. Thankfully things went south right when we were supposed to be leaving for New Orleans.

Today would be the day that we left Mystic Falls for good. I never wanted to see this place again. It felt awful just being here. All of the memories flooded back from a time I wanted to forget. While most people thought of their childhood cities as beautiful places that they wanted to get away from, this place held nothing more than pain and suffering.

It wasn't often that all of the Mikaelson siblings agreed with one another, but yesterday we had unanimously voted to leave this cow town and go forth to New Orleans, a place that we once called home. With Caroline and I seven months pregnant, we needed to hit the road sooner rather than later. If we had our children here we could get stuck. We all know that babies do that to people.

"Do you have all of your stuff, angel?" Damon asked from the other room, clicking his tongue as he stuck his head out of the door. "Don't worry, angel, I'll carry it all for you."

"I would hope so," I mustered out, my belly getting in the way of everything I did. I couldn't sleep comfortably anymore. I hadn't had a good nights sleep in over four months. "Did Stefan ever say when he was supposed to come back? I want him to get here on time so we can leave with Care and Nik. Henrik already offered to drive Jer in Kol's car."

"He should be back in a few minutes, angel," Damon insisted, now behind me. He ran his hands down my back and kissed my jawline. "Someone's cranky today. Do you want me to get you anything, sweetie?"

"Out of here," he chuckled, helping me to my feet, "You know I hate this place more than anyone."

"And you won't have to be here for much longer, angel. Just a few more hours and we'll be on our way," my mate nuzzled himself into my neck, breathing me in. "Let's go out to the car so you can get all comfy in those heated blankets Stefan and I got you last week. You don't have to be uncomfortable for much longer."

"I've been uncomfortable for the past five months," Damon rolled his eyes and took my hand. "But I hope it gets better."

"As do I, my darling."

______________________________________________

Our way to New Orleans had been one to remember, with Stefan and Damon singing annoying songs all along the way and Nik having road rage that could only be perfected by the Original Hybrid himself.

The new house, which had been bought in order to be able to house all of us inside, was just as large as I imagined. A pristine white, it reminded me of the Salvatore Boarding house in the ways that it held its own form of southern charm. No place out in the world could replace the buildings in this city, with this nice mansion having been built quite a few years back. One of the best things about the place was that it had room for expansion, something that would come into play if we added any more people to our growing family, pack, and coven.

Our new house did have some things that irked me, like the fact that it was so far away from the rest of civilization. We would have to drive quite a ways away in order to get near any schools (although Stefan, Damon, and I were contemplating just homeschooling our kids due to the nature of our species). I knew that Caroline and Nik wanted to give their son, who they had affectionately named Aric, the most normal life that he could have given the circumstances. Nik had not been given a good childhood and my brother made it his duty to provide everything that his son needed, both economically and emotionally.

Mikael had done his job as a shitty father the second that he ruined my ability to know if what I was doing was right when it came to parenting. Never having a role model did eat up what little self esteem you have, especially when you didn't know you would be having two children. Little Tove and Tova were my life and I loved them with all of my heart, but I still feared that I would fail them in the same ways that my own father failed me and the rest of our family.

"We have to get the stuff inside first," Nik announced, taking some suitcases from the back of our car. "Dear, we had people set up the living room inside, so you can go and lay down for a bit while my brothers and I help move everything else."

His mate nodded before helping herself inside, walking with Laurel. The three of us had become quite close. It was good that Caroline had better friends than Elena and Bonnie. In the end, we were equal. Each one of us had our own faults, to which we would clash, but we did do our best to understand each other and make up right afterwards. We had never had a blowout like Caroline would frequently have with Elena and Bonnie, who cared more about themselves.

Bonnie never cared enough about Caroline, that was clear. Nobody should ever block a mate bond. Doing that... its a form of betrayal in and of itself. I would never be able to forgive someone for that, and Caroline felt the same way after seeing just how kind and caring Nik was. I mean, why wouldn't Nik be caring towards his own mate?

Walking inside to where Laurel and Caroline were, I realized just how large this house really was. There were small secrets to what had been, no, who had been here before us. Just small cracks in the paint and little snips of parchment thrown all around, but it was noticeable to my wandering eyes. Wonder how much has changed since we were last here. I mean, people must have lived here before. The real question is who lived here before? I swear I've seen this place before.

"Remember when that stupid old Governor lived here?" Kol called out to me. "Must have been 1820 or something. Guy was a drag, but he threw some nice parties."

"Right," I sighed, sitting down on one of the sofas. "1820, what a year. Things have changed here."

Kol gave me a knowing look and sighed, taking some things up to the second story of the house.

What had changed? The city was still a hub for vampires. Nik said that they were informed of a vampire with the initials of M.G running the place, calling himself the king of the French Quarter. Bullshit, Nik and I would always be the king and queen of New Orleans. No MG could take that away from us. We were Originals, more powerful than any other species and indestructible. This MG would have to join us if he wanted to have any say in the way things were run. I didn't want another war, but I wanted my throne.

We couldn't seem to find a name anywhere. Kol and Henrik had promised to scope out the place for everyone so as to not draw too much attention to the fact that the Mikaelsons were all back in town. Kol may have been known as a Mikaelson, but Henrik was not.

My baby brother was still a young vampire in need of some direction, but he could still get himself around. He refused to bring along Jer in his plans even when his best friend had been begging him to hang out around the city. It was too risky, with Jer still being a human. It was about time that he turned, but Henrik was still ansty about the idea.

If Jer did die, he would turn from the vampire blood we all supplied him.

"Look, I'm just saying that we should be getting some more sun," I turned my head to where Caroline's voice was coming from. She was wrapped up in a blanket on the new couch Nik had purchased for the mansion. "Striddy needs sun too."

"I sure do," I agreed, rolling my head back. "Hate being cooped up all the time. Do you think that we would be allowed to go out, pregnant and all?"

"Nik can't resist my charm. He could come with us to, you know, guard us since Stef and Damon are so protective of you," I smirked, knowing where she was going with this.

"Well then, Care bear, you better show me some of those sweet talking skills for this devious plan of yours."