Shielding The Innocent - Niklaus Mikaelson

Chapter 8

After searching the upstairs for the twins and coming up empty handed, I head down the ballroom stairs to look on the main floor. However, I don't have to look any farther, because the twins are circling the table in the middle of the room. The table has the jawbone in the center of it, with a protection spell around it. The twins stare at the bone intently.

"Bexley? Hope, what are you doing?" I ask them stepping to where they are. Neither of them remove their eyes from the jawbone.

"Mom?" Bexley questions.

"Can you hear them, too?" Hope inquires. I grab their arms and turn them away from the bone and towards me.

"What's going on?" Nik questions walking into the room, but I don't answer him.

"What are you hearing?" I scrunch my eyebrows, looking between them.

"Voices." Hope says.

"They said that the three of us and Aunt Hayley are connected to this." Bexley finishes. I look between them and then connect my worried eyes to Nik's.

"If this fossil has been whispering lies, I'll gladly throw it in the river." Nik states.

"No. Not the bone." Bexley denies, as the girls look at their dad.

"The witches." Hope explains. "The Ancestors. They have a message for us. A warning."

"What did they say?" I inquire.

"They want you and Aunt Hayley to go to St. Anne's Church to talk to them." Bexley tells me. "They said you have to do exactly what they say, and you have to do it now."

"Before the Hollow comes for us." Hope adds.

"Why don't you guys go play?" I suggest and they nod, before going into the Courtyard.

"I'll message Hayley and we'll head to St. Anne's." I tell Nik.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Nik asks in concern.

"If they have a way to stop this thing and save our daughters? I think it's an excellent idea." I nod.

"I'm going with you." He sighs.

"Okay." I state and I pull out my phone and contact Hayley.

______________________

Nik, Hayley, and I walk into the church. "It's quiet." Hayley comments.

"Of course it's quiet." Nik deadpans. "It's a trap."

"It's not a trap." I tell him, hopeful.

"New Orleans witches have hated my family for three centuries." Nik counters, as we walk to the front of the church with Nik leading. "Of course it's a trap."

"The coven protect their own." Hayley says.

"Which now includes Hope and Bexley." I add. "They are part of their legacy."

"Bexley and Hope are a far cry from a French Quarter fortune-teller." Nik scoffs, turning to Hayley and me. "And while we're on the subject, they're seven. If anyone wants to talk to them, they should ask my permission."

"You're going to be a lot of fun when they start dating." Hayley rolls her eyes.

"I'm gonna be a prefect gentleman." Nik smirks. "And should any of their suitors fail to meet my expectations, I'll compel them to the priesthood." He tells her and I laugh.

"At least he didn't say he'd kill them." I shrug at Hayley. "I call that improvement." I smile and she chuckles.

Four teen girls show themselves at the front of the church. "Oh, look, Harvest Girls." Nik muses. We walk up to where they are and Nik addresses them. "I assume you speak on behalf of your Ancestors."