CENTURIES | Lucien Castle

XXII. Gather Up the Killers

5 years later
Hayley and Lucien's Safe House - 2019

"Daddy?" Kennedy called out while standing on her bed. Lucien vamp sped to the doorway of Kennedy's room thinking something was wrong. "Can you tuck me in?"

Lucien let out a sigh of relief and walked further into the room. Kennedy plopped down on the mattress and had her father pull the blanket over her.

"Daddy?" Kennedy asked as Lucien was tucking her blanket around her. "When is mommy coming home?"

Lucien froze and stopped tucking his daughter in. He looked up at her with sadness in his eyes. He didn't know how to tell her that he didn't know when Juliette would return to them. "Soon. Very soon," he mumbled with a light smile on his lips. "I promise you, my sweetheart. Now, go to sleep and tomorrow you can draw and paint with Hope. I have to go to work for a few days so I need you to be good for Aunt Hayley, okay?"

Kennedy nodded her sleepy head as her eyes fell shut. "Okay, daddy," she mumbled and Lucien leaned over and pressed his lips to her forehead. He was about to stand up and leave his daughter's bedroom when he heard her whisper out, "I love you."

Every time he heard those three little words from the 5-year-old, his heart swelled. "I love you, too."

****

Lucien and Hayley were super close to bringing back the Mikaelsons. They needed one more werewolf pack and they needed a witch to siphon Rebekah's hex. Lucien was leaving the safe house to go track down the witch that could possibly help them. He had gotten the witch's name from one of his trusted informants.

Before he left, the upgraded original snuck up to the attic where they hid the Mikaelson siblings. Lucien climbed the little ladder and slid the entry open. He slowly walked over to Juliette's coffin and opened the lid.

A sleeping Juliette laid inside and the Castle vampire ran his knuckles across her cheek. He missed her terribly and as more time passed, Kennedy continued to ask about her mother. He had only told the little child small details of Juliette as he didn't know when the original heretic would awake.

He smiled fondly when he saw the silver necklace around her neck that he had given her for Christmas before their daughter was born.

Lucien took his gaze away from his beloved when he heard Hayley climbing up the stairs. This was a frequent occurrence for the pair. They would open their loved ones coffin and stare longingly at them.

Lucien gently shut the lid on Juliette's coffin and stood up from his stool that he was previously sitting on. "I already put Kennedy to bed. I'm going to head out to go track down that witch."

"Don't worry, Lucien," Hayley noticed the look on the vampire's face. "She's always an angel. Which is shocking considering you're her father."

That was how the two bonded since they were the only company they had besides Kennedy and Hope. They taunted and teased each other to lighten the mood. "You do realize Nik is Hope's father, right?" He shot back. Lucien noticed the hybrid's longing looks to Elijah's coffin. "Don't worry. I'll leave so you can stare longingly at Elijah," he joked despite him doing so to Juliette not a minute ago.

****

Hope and Kennedy were in the former's room a few days later, coloring together. The cousins were really close with each other as they spent the last five years with each other. Kennedy picked her blonde head up from her coloring book when she heard someone coming. Hayley leaned against the doorframe when a vehicle approached the house.