laissez les bon temps rouler//jackson kenner

1.2

"Well, he wasn't good enough for you," Nik insists.

"No one was ever good enough for Else or me, Nik, you made sure of that," Bekah reminds him. "Now where is Elijah?"

Nik checks his phone before standing up.

"Where are you going?" I ask.

"It appears the night is not quite over, yet. I'm off for another drink with Marcel," Nik informs us.

"Elijah told me about your plan to take apart Marcel's empire piece by piece. I don't remember it involving you two drinking New Orleans dry together," Bekah states.

"I know you don't have many friends, Rebekah, but what some friends do when they get together is they drink. And when they drink, they tell secrets. Marcel has somehow found a way to control the entirety of witches in the Quarter, and I aim to uncover the 'how' so I might take it for myself. Finding Elijah didn't make my to-do list today." Nik turns to leave but pauses as he reaches the door. "Oh, and welcome home, little sister."

Once again Nik is only out to help himself. Elijah and I have spent the better part of a thousand years trying to help Nik, but the only thing that has ever gotten us was a stab in the back. I'm sure Nik has Elijah's daggered body somewhere in this house.

Bekah turns around frustrated with our brother. She notices Jackson sitting on the landing of the stairs. "You, wolf boy." Jackson stands up and looks down at us. "Else and I are going to search this house inch by inch until we find what our evil brother has done to our good one. You're helping."

Jackson follows behind Bekah and me as we descend down a spiral staircase.

"The governor had lots of secret rooms. I'll show you his favorite," I state.

We wind up in the cellar of the house. It is covered in dust and cobwebs. I shine the flashlight on one of my siblings' coffins.

"You think Klaus killed him," Jackson states.

"We can't be killed, silly boy," Bekah explains. "That doesn't stop Klaus from finding ways to torture us. He has a set of mystical silver daggers. One in the heart sends us into a deep slumber. Klaus gets his jollies from keeping us in a box, until he decides to pull the dagger out. That must be what he's done to Elijah." She points to one of the coffins. "This one's mine."

Jackson seems a little shocked. "He keeps your coffin on standby."

I smile weakly. "He likes to be prepared for when his family members inevitably disappoint him. Elijah's isn't here. He must've stashed him elsewhere."

"Welcome to the family, love," Bekah tells Jackson. "You should've run the second you realized Elijah was gone."

"Yeah, well, the witches have put some sort of hex on Else and I. As long as she is carrying this baby, neither of us can leave New Orleans. If we do, they kill me and the baby and they'll do God only knows what to Else," Jackson informs her.

"Well, knowing Klaus, he's already planning a box for you. I'm leaving as soon as I find Elijah. Being daggered in a box for decades sucks, trust me. You'd best find a way to break that hex and run," Bekah tells Jackson, before she leaves.

Jackson and I head back upstairs. I stop him before he can reach the stairs to the second floor. "I think you should know about my family. More than the rumors and whispers, the lies that people have been spreading for centuries."

I sit down on the stairs and Jackson does the same. I go to place my hand on his temple, but he pulls back slightly.

"What are you doing?" Jackson asks.

I smile slightly. "Relax. If you open your mind to me, I can show you."

I place my hand on his temple and close my eyes. "In the beginning, my family was human... A thousand years ago, now."

In the flashback Bekah and I are running with Henrik. We were off to see Elijah and Nik fighting. A flash of my mother and her potions. A flash of the night Henrik died. Niklaus carrying Henrik's lifeless body back into the village. Me following behind, tears streaming down my face.

"Desperate to protect the rest of us, our father forced my mother to call upon her black magic in order to make us stronger."

I show Jackson the night my mother turned my family into vampires.

"The first vampires were born. But with this speed, this strength, this immortality, came a terrible hunger. No one felt this hunger more than Klaus and I."

A flashback of the night that Nik triggered his curse.

"When Klaus killed for the first time, we knew what he truly was, what I truly was."

Another flash showing Elijah and Mikael watching Nik scream in pain.

"We weren't just vampires," I tell Jackson.

"You were also werewolves," Jackson states. "That's how the werewolf curse works. It isn't activated until you take a life."

I nod my head. "Niklaus and I were the result of an indiscretion our mother had hidden from us all. An affair, with a werewolf. Infuriated by this betrayal, my father forced our mother to cast a spell that would suppress Klaus and I's werewolf sides."

I show Jackson the night that Mikael had Elijah chain Nik and I up. The night that Nik and I pleaded with Elijah for help, but it never came.

"Your dad was a dick," Jackson states. I laugh. "Did you trigger your curse before your mother bound your wolf side?"

I shake my head. "No. I didn't trigger my curse until recently. Klaus found a way to lift the curse while we were back in Mystic Falls. I finally had a choice to be my true self." I look at Jackson sympathetically. "I'm sorry I got you wrapped up in my family drama. You don't deserve any of this."

"Maybe this was never my plan, but we're here now, and I'm going to do what's right," Jackson assures me. He smiles slightly before standing up and walking upstairs.