Shielding The Innocent - Niklaus Mikaelson

Chapter 6

My eyes burn from crying and my body aches of exhaustion. Guilt had settled in and made a home in my gut. I had forced myself to stop crying. Hope and Bexley are going to need me to be strong so they can grieve without being concerned about me.

Elijah had taken Roman and quickly disappeared. Which is definitely for the better. The anger I feel towards him is greater than when he banished Davina to the Ancestors mercy. This time he wasn't trying to protect his family. This time he was protecting the enemy and he let someone he's in love with die. Hayley was forced to shield Bexley and Hope from Greta because he choose the wrong side. The heartbreak on her face when she realized he wasn't there to help us is forever imprinted in my memory.

Her death is his fault as much as it is mine. I should have put up more of a fight than I did about going first in the binding ritual. It should have been me who sacrificed myself to protect my children. Freya thinks that mine and Nik's bond would have been broke had I done the binding spell because I was a hybrid when it was placed on us. But, I'm not so sure. The bond connects our souls. At least if it had been me there would have been a chance I would have came back. Even if just a small one.

I had, also, met the infamous Caroline Forbes. Nik's old love interest and the co-founder of The Salvatore Boarding School and mother to Alaric's twin girls. Although, 'met' is a loose term. I didn't actually talk to her. I was too distraught. She had helped Nik find the twins, which happened to, also, lead them to Hayley and me. She didn't have to enlist the advance witches at the school into tracking Hope and Bexley and she didn't have to go with Nik to help find them, but she did. Which, made me even more confident that sending them to her school was the right thing to do. I trust her and Alaric to protect them.

Nik and I haven't properly spoken. He had gathered Hayley's remains, assuring me he would handle things until I got home. Then, he left for New Orleans, after Caroline rented him a car. Caroline drove the twins, who were passed out due to the sleeping powder, and I back the The Salvatore school. I didn't talk to her much in the car either, other than to say 'thank you'. I had fell asleep as soon as we had started driving. My body just shut down.

Caroline had called ahead and when we got to the school Alaric had five blood bags waiting for me. They knew that I had been missing for a long time and that I was starving and poisoned with Vervain and Wolfsbane. The blood bags helped flush the poison from my body and I was, definitely, feeling better. However, the emotional toll can't be be healed with blood. I appreciate them, nonetheless.

Alaric carried Hope and a vampire student, MG, carried Bexley to their room. I drained the blood bags as I followed them. They placed them down, head to toe, on Bexley's twin bed. I nodded gratefully at them both with a forced smile and they left us alone. I maneuvered the girls legs and situated myself in the middle on the bed with my back against the wall. The bend of their legs are propped up on my lap. I grabbed Hope's shin with my left hand and Bexley's shin with my right.

I sit like that for a couple of hours, waiting for them to wake up, as I stare blankly at the wall. I didn't want to tell them that Hayley died. Hayley has been like a second mother to them and this is a pain I can't protect them from. I know that they already blame themselves for our kidnapping and now they are going to blame themselves for this. I don't want them to feel the crushing guilt I feel. I'm afraid they'll drown in it.

Bexley and Hope fling themselves into a sitting position simultaneously with gasps. "Mom?" Hope immediately calls.

"Hey." I whisper, placing a hand on both their shoulders. They turn to me and relief floods their faces.

"Mom." Bexley breathes and flings her arms around me, Hope following. I grip them tightly as they bury their faces on either side of my neck.

"I'm here." I mumble into their hair.