Shielding The Innocent - Niklaus Mikaelson

Chapter 15

I spent the last couple of days with the twins, enjoying the time without The Strix. Nik is getting increasingly paranoid and I can't blame him. I'm concerned, too. Now that his sire line is broken, all the enemies that he turned have no reason not to hunt him down and attempt to kill him. Elijah continuously brushes him off and constantly reminds him that all the white oak was destroyed. However, thinking we are in the clear always bites us in the ass. There's no way to be absolutely sure that no white oak exists out in the world.

Davina never messaged me back, so I have no idea if my suspicions are correct about what happened to the nexus vorti. Hayley has been spending a lot of her time with the Cresents. Especially, with Jackson gone, which make sense because she is now their only leader and they need her.

I put the twins down for a nap and head down to the Courtyard with a random book from Nik's collection. Making myself comfortable on the couch I open it and start reading to pass the time. Nik is out with Cami. He hopes that a therapy session will help his paranoia a bit. Although, I'm not sure how much.

Cami is rightfully annoyed with us for bricking Aurora into a wall instead of killing her. She knows that if Aurora ever gets free that she and I are at the top of Aurora's list to kill. Turning Cami didn't detour Nik from caring about her and her plan to take me out of the picture failed. Aurora thought by doing those two things Nik would welcome her back with open arms and she was terribly wrong. Not to mention, being in the wall with no one but herself is giving her a lot of time to think. Nik swears she'll never get out, but I refuse to rule it out and so does Cami. She has been spending her days training to become a better fighter for that possibility. I agree with her and think that killing Aurora would have saved us a lot of future problems that might come. But, Nik feels leaving her in an unending amount of torment is what she deserves.

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Nik had come home and he gathered me, Elijah, and Freya into the study. We stand in front of him waiting for him to explain what's going on.

"It was him." He says looking at Elijah and only slightly glancing at me and Freya. "It was Gaspar Cortez."

"I assume this is someone from your box of letters." Freya says.

"Box of letters?" I ask in confusion.

"Klaus has a box of letters from his victims loved ones." Freya explains.

"Morbid." I shutter.

"It was a phase." Nik defends himself in annoyance. "Gaspar was the youngest son of a particularly vile family of warlords I dealt with in the 17th century."

"Didn't they burn that Philistine pigsty to the ground?" Elijah inquires.

"Pigsty?" Nik counters in offense. "Belaga was my favorite artist retreat. Someone had to pay for that so I murdered Gaspar's brute of a father."

"And?" Freya prods knowing there is more.

"And one or two--"

"Five." Elijah corrects Nik.

"Five of his bloodthirsty brothers." Nik says.

"Don't forget the mistress." Elijah adds.

"That was an accident." Nik counters pointing at him.

"Lovely." I sigh and rub my hand over my face.

"The point is, that Gaspar was but a footnote." Nik continues. "Until he became a vampire, hell-bent on hunting me. He's a cunning deviant, known to compel hordes of the helpless to aid him with his tasks. You see, this is exactly what I was concerned about. Devils of all kinds, crawling out of their crevices to strike at me." He goes quiet and focuses on what he is hearing. I do the same and I notice familiar foot steps entering the Compound. "Speaking of which." He says.