Rue | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 23

Ibeth squeaked as Lucien shoved her into Vincent's arms, grabbing Freya roughly and biting into her hand, making her blood leak into the basin as she screamed.

"LET GO OF HER!" cried Ibeth, struggling against Vincent.

"Ibeth, stop it," said Vincent. "Stop fighting, they're gonna make me hurt you—"

She gave up only when Lucien released Freya. Ibeth did her best to grab onto her, sitting her down and placing her shirt as best as she could over the wound to stop the bleeding.

"You have to heal her!" cried Ibeth when it wouldn't cease. "You basically bit out a chunk of her hand, she'll get infected or she could die! And you need to get these zip ties off of her, it's not making it any better!"

"I recommend you don't yell at me right now, love," said Lucien with fake sweetness. "Now, Vincent, there's a spell that needs doing, lest the Ancestors melt that precocious little brain of yours." From his jacket pocket he withdrew a reddish-orange fluid and poured it into the basin, allowing it to mix with Freya's blood.

"What's that?" asked Vincent.

"That's not exactly need-to-know," said Lucien, handing him a small moleskine notebook. "This part's all you."

Vincent started to look through the notebook, his face going slack as he internalized what was in it. "This is it. This is the spell that created the Originals."

Lucien beamed smugly. "Took an entire coven ages to reverse-engineer it. And then, I had to get my hands on this." He held up a small wooden bullet. "It's no wonder Nik once liked Cami, she does have a delicious little brain..."

"If you've hurt Cami—" began Vincent.

"Rest assured your girlfriend is perfectly fine. But, she did lead them right to the white oak and like the fools they are they let it slip from their grasp. Aurora made them bullets and handed me one. She's out there now, leading them on a wild goose chase to give us our time here. Soon big brother Tristan will come to her rescue, and the Originals will kill the majority of The Strix for me. Hopefully even Tristan himself. By the time that is over... we will be done."

"No," said Vincent, shaking his head. "No way, man, I'm not doing this for you!" Suddenly, he began to yell out in pain, doubling over in agony.

"Well," said Lucien, "seems the Ancestors beg to differ."

The spell let up, and Vincent was able to gasp in relief. "Now, get to work like a good chap," urged Lucien. Vincent had no choice but to dip his fingers into the basin and begin his work.

Freya let out a weak pant. "All this effort to become a sad copy of an Original? You think you can just wake up one day and become top of the food chain?"

Lucien rushed to her, but Ibeth got in the way, shielding Freya from him. He yelled in both of their faces instead, "It did not happen overnight, I assure you. The truth is, I used to think your siblings gods... until my love was stolen, and our lives taken by their compulsion. Once free, I realized they were not worthy of all that had been gifted them. I decided, then, that I would become in flesh what I have always been... their better. I have engineer every second since into achieving this moment. And you..." he reached out to cup Ibeth's face, "helped me with that."

He got to his feet, towering over them. "So touch-starved... begging for attention of any kind. Why, it was easy to show up to New Orleans that night and drive a wedge between you and Nik. You were so easily twisted to my agenda because of your misery... and you gave me everything I needed. With ease I made you feel sympathy for me and I knew you would pitch the idea of the de-linking to the Mikaelsons. I encouraged you and got you the meeting with Tristan, I told him just what to say to make you think it would all work out, despite what the Mikaelsons were telling you. I fed you the idea of another source of blood to obtain an unsired heart in order to examine your child's genetics, to see if their blood could be used for this spell."