Shielding The Innocent - Niklaus Mikaelson

Chapter 2

   On the way to New Orleans, we made a detour and intercepted a prison transport bus. Rebekah, Elijah, and Kol need to refuel, and Hayley and I need to gain a bit more strength, since we are going go up against Marcel to free Nik. The dead prisons lay on the side of the dirt road we are on. Elijah sits on the ground with a dead guard in his lap. Rebekah drops the prisoner she finished draining. I stand off to the side, having already drained a prisoner. Kol is off somewhere in the woods killing another one, his screaming filling the air. 

   "Good Lord, that one has some lungs on him." Rebekah states the obvious. "He should've been an opera singer. Might've ended better for him, actually."

   "Is this absolutely necessary?" Freya inquires, rushing towards us. 

   "That depends." Rebekah says. "Do you want us at our full strength, or do you plan on rescuing Nik on your own?" 

   "Well, death rattles are distracting, and I'm trying to break a cloaking spell." Freya counters. 

   "Kol, would you, please?!" Elijah yells, as he takes out his handkerchief. The man he has screams loudly one more time, before going silent. "Thank you." Elijah says and then, he wipes the blood from his mouth. "You were saying?" 

   "I can sense Klaus is still in New Orleans." Freya continues. "Most likely somewhere underground." Kol come out of the woods covered in blood. "I can't get a read on exactly where, unless I'm in the city itself."

   "Yeah." Hayley appears. "That's gonna be a problem..." She holds up her phone. "I have contacts in New Orleans. As you can imagine, the place is crawling with vampires, all of whom hate all of us. Whatever we do we need to do it fast."

   "Well, I wasn't planning on a pub crawl." Freya states. "I don't want to stay any longer than we have to. But we need to go."

   "Whoa. Wait-Wait." Kol protests. "We're not doing this today...?" 

   "Hasn't Nik suffered enough?" Rebekah counters.

   "Yes." He agrees. "And I've died. Twice. I'm not about to give Marcel a shot at a third. Now, I say, we draw that Muppet out of town. And when he's gone..."

   "I've been away from my daughters long enough." I cut him off. "They've been away from Nik, definitely, long enough. I have a dull ache searing in my chest as we speak. He's in agony and has been for five years, while Hayley and I scoured around trying fix all of you, after he sacrifice himself to keep you all alive. So, come, don't come, I don't care. I'm getting him back today, even if I have to do it alone."

   "I'm just trying to be sensible." Kol counters. "Until Freya can make enough cure with her werewolf hostage, Marcel can basically chew through our bloody throats." 

   "Enough." Elijah interjects. "We're all in danger." He stands to his feet. "We free Niklaus today. Even if I have to burn that city to the ground." He starts walking towards the car. 

  "Thank you!" I exclaim. "Now, we're getting somewhere." We all follow after him.

____________________

   I go with Rebekah and Elijah to meet up with Josh. He is staying in Marcel's old place and currently has a boy over, that he is rushing out. He closes the door and says. "Well, thanks for waiting and not just, you know, killing him." 

   "We're only monsters by necessity, Joshua." Elijah tells him as he and Rebekah follow me down the stair and over to Josh.

   "Besides, we just ate." Rebekah muses.

   "Oh, that's too bad." Josh says sarcastically. "I was gonna offer you some 'welcome back' waffles." 

   "I missed you." I laugh.