They went to find Elijah.
Granted that Klaus was trying to locate Davina, Esmeray didn't think he'd be very much up for deviating from that to save a few kids.
And truth be told, this wasn't all that bad to her.
"I sound like a psychopath for saying this," she said while Aiden drove them to Marcel's place— apparently the location where Elijah was training a new vampire. "But... is it really that bad?"
Hayley, who knew her well, understood why she felt that way. Aiden was slightly appalled. "They're just kids!" he said incredulously.
"Well, they are a bit young, but not much younger than the rest of us were when it happened to us in my time. Aside from me, the special case, anyone aged fifteen to eighteen could participate to trigger their curse. Which, I guess shouldn't be called a curse in this context since the whole reason behind the ritual was that it was a gift. But it wasn't bad for them. The first transformation sucks for every wolf but back then, we had so many things that we did to help everyone gain control of their wolf natures. I reestablished some of those practices around the country. After their first full moon, they could be able to turn painlessly like more experienced wolves. The one thing I do have to say— why kill opposers and not criminals? It would be better for the kids to trigger their curse by ridding the world of some creep who hurt innocent people."
"The thing is, he's not getting them to murder criminals," said Aiden. "I don't want my brother to go through that yet. He thinks he wants to be a wolf but what if he regrets it later on? It's supposed to be a gift but most times, it isn't. I was stuck as a wolf for a really long time and it fucking sucked. I won't let him suffer when he's not even sixteen yet."
Esmeray shrugged. "I guess we're saving the kids, then."
Hayley had to stifle a laugh, and Esmeray heard her cough in a way that sounded like she said 'Fuck them kids' (as a joke, obviously).
"We'll save them for Aiden's sake," Esmeray sighed. "I'm just saying that the ritual itself isn't bad. The actual problem lies in the fact that Finn wants them to serve him. But I don't understand why he thinks this ritual is the key to that. It's not like they'll be sired to him. In fact, I think this would have backfired even if we didn't help them. He forces them to kill, they get saddled with guilt, their first transformation will suck, then they get a moonlight ring, but where's the gain? Like, here's your one time dose of pain, let me free you from it, but in return, you have to be my soldier and eventually die for my cause? That's stupid. Even a kid would know that's unnatural."
Aiden looked at her through the rearview mirror before casting a look at Hayley, who was smiling to herself. At least Esmeray kept it fun.
"I'm just saying," Esmeray said, holding her hands up in surrender. "I already agreed to save the children."
"You have zero motherly bones in your body," Aiden teased once he pulled up at the building.
"I have motherly bones," said Esmeray, frowning his way. "Just... not at this exact moment. I had some the other day when I was helping these kids in Rhode Island."
"Channel those bones, please and thank you."
Esmeray rolled her eyes and followed Hayley up to Marcel's loft. They walked in to the sight of Elijah, pinned to the wall, a young woman keeping him there while her hand was in his chest, clutching his heart.
"Elijah?" said Hayley immediately.
The woman and Elijah quickly leapt apart. Esmeray could sense that Hayley had gotten jealous, and she contained a smirk as they moved down the stairs toward them.
"We need to talk," said Hayley slowly, glaring at the woman as Aiden walked up behind her. The woman made to lunge at him, but Elijah held her back, and Hayley put her hands up in surrender. "We're not here for a fight. Just hear him out."
"Speak," Elijah beckoned, staring directly at Aiden. "I suggest you be succinct."
"Please," said Aiden quietly. "I need your help." He held up his phone. "I'll explain everything. Josh, Marcel, and Oliver should be on their way."
There were several tense moments of waiting for Marcel and Josh to arrive.
Esmeray kept looking between the young vampire, Gia, and Hayley, who were both looking expectantly at Elijah, who was staring at Aiden with curiosity.
"This is awkward," she said with a small smile. "Maybe we should say something. Anything, please."
"What is there to talk about?" asked Gia a bit defensively, apparently not too happy with being in the presence of two hybrids and a werewolf.
Esmeray looked her up and down. "Let's talk about your hair. It's similar to mine, only mine is longer. How do you take care of it?"
Elijah looked at her as if to say, 'Are you really going to talk about this right now?'
Esmeray shot back a look that said, 'Yes, because otherwise, Hayley and Gia might kill each other because apparently, your dick is just that good.'
But she didn't say that, as much as she wanted to. Gia ran her tongue slowly over her lips. "Oh. Um... I use this one conditioner... I can write it down for you."
She went to get a notepad, and Hayley watched her go, apparently judging her.
"This totally isn't terrible," said Aiden with a tight-lipped smile. "We really should talk about something better."
"You can choose the topic, then," said Esmeray, gesturing for him to speak. "Unless you want us all to talk about the elephant in the room."
"There is no elephant in the room," said Hayley lowly, casting Elijah a side look before turning back to Aiden. She was about to speak when there was a woosh, and Josh and Marcel arrived. Seconds later, Oliver jogged into the room.
"Thank god," said Aiden under his breath before clearing his throat. "Okay. So a bunch of the young, untriggered werewolves are being gathered for the La Luna Sanguinis ritual tonight, which as Esmeray told me, is one hundred percent real and deals with them killing someone under the blood moon to trigger their curse. The witch, Finn, is getting antsy, and he wants soldiers. So now, it's either join up, or pay the price."
Elijah frowned. "I've known my brother Finn to be merciless, but I'll admit, this exceeds even my expectations."
"Since they're kids, we want to save them," said Esmeray. Aiden cast her a look, and she smiled sheepishly. "Mostly Aiden wants to save them. Forgive me for being a thousand years old and feeling excited to see a ritual that was special to me in the past." She shook her head. "Anyway, we need to get the kids out of the city. And to get an escape route, we need someone who knows the Quarter really well. Marcel, that's where you come in."
"Where will we be taking them?" he asked.
"There's still wolves deep in the Bayou," mentioned Oliver. "Ones that didn't take a ring. They can look after them."
Marcel huffed. "The ones that never sold out, you mean."
"You wanna look at it like that, that's fine. We did what we had to do."
"Your wolves have been fighting us for decades. Why trust us now?"
"One of the recruits is my little brother," said Aiden after briefly hesitating. "There's no way I'm sending him to war."
Marcel looked at Elijah for approval, and the Original nodded. "Tell us what you need."
"Alright, the kids are being held in the City of the Dead until we bring them through the Quarter to St. Anne's Church," said Aiden. "Now, meanwhile, Finn is holding a meeting with a few humans in-the-know. The ones who have been... reluctant to fall in line with his new leadership."
Elijah was stunned. "He's going to use the children to kill any opposition."
Aiden nodded. "Activate their curse, send a message to anyone who's thinking about going against him. It's two birds, one... bloodbath."
"So we'll hit them while the kids are on the move," suggested Marcel. "We can use the underground passageways from the Prohibition era— I know them like the back of my hand."
"I have an idea," said Esmeray, tapping her fingertips together. "If we're using the passageways, I can go in and cast a spell over the entire system. As soon as you get the kids inside, no one will be able to find them. The tricky part is getting them in without being seen."
"We can use the entrance in Rousseau's," said Josh, who was looking at Aiden rather intently. "There's a hidden door that leads straight into the underground. If we can get them there, I can open and close the door and go on with my day and no one will suspect a thing. As soon as they're in, Finn can't find them."
Elijah pointed at the two wolves. "Aiden, make certain you and Oliver escort the children. We'll handle the rest."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait," said Oliver, holding his hands up. "Esther and her psycho son are already giving me the stink-eye. If these kids go missing on my watch, I'm as good as dead."
"You wanted to help your people and make amends for the past," Elijah told him. "This is your chance."
Did things always have to go wrong? Esmeray wondered this often. Her spell had been flawless— that wasn't the problem. She just didn't know that a trap had been set. None of them would realize it until the next day when Oliver and Elijah didn't make it back.
She hadn't given them a second thought. As soon as she cast her spell, Klaus had let her know that Davina's family had a cabin in The Terrebonne Parish. Since Klaus was still in the French Quarter, he'd come to get her in his car before taking the two of them to the cabin.
"Is she alone in there?" asked Esmeray quietly as they got closer to the door. "Like, just her and Mikael? Or does she have an accomplice?"
"Camille only determined that she was here. There was no word on an accomplice." He moved up to the window, looking into and seeing a couch and coffee table. He didn't appear to see any movement, and when Esmeray peeked, she couldn't, either.
"Someone's in there," she said, putting her hand on the glass before moving toward another window that showed a fairly clean room. "There's a spell so that we can't see in. It could be so that we won't see Mikael and Davina are in there. But the lights are on. If she was a bit more experienced, she would have added an extra illusion component to make it seem like no one was home at all."
"Do you need to undo the spell to get us in?" asked Klaus, flexing his fingers and looking around on the ground for something he could grab. "Or could I simply..." He picked up a particularly long stick that had a crest Esmeray recognized all too well— it was the crest of Klaus's family, which she'd seen in his memories. He growled before throwing it right through the living room window as if it was a javelin. The glass exploded, and there was a cut off scream followed by a loud crash.
"Enough games, Davina!" Klaus shouted. "Send out my father! Let's finish this!"
They could see Davina inside, but she didn't appear to be conscious. There was another figure in the room that neither Klaus or Esmeray recognized. The werewitch tried to open the door, but similar to the spell that had long ago been placed on Alaric's apartment, she could not touch the doorknob, meaning she couldn't open it.
"DAVINA!" Klaus snapped, seeing Esmeray was unsuccessful at opening the door. "Is this not what you brought him for? I'm not afraid!"
There was a pause before the door opened, and Mikael was staring right at Esmeray, who quickly stepped back, seeing a sickening smirk on his face. "Hello, boy," he said to Klaus before turning his beady eyes onto Esmeray.
Klaus, despite looking afraid, didn't hesitate to move between Mikael and Esmeray, having a feeling Mikael was going to try and hurt her. "You seem rather impatient," Mikael observed. "And you've grown more foolish. Are you so eager to meet your end?"
"I'm only eager to stand over your burning corpse again," said Klaus snidely. "Only this time, I intend to enjoy it more."
Mikael moved closer to him. "I've traveled all the way back from hell for this moment."
"Well then," said Klaus, "I'd hate to keep you waiting."
He only just managed to move Esmeray out of the way before he lunged at Mikael. She got to her feet quickly, seeing they were already fighting at full vampire speed, which was hard for her to keep up. One thing was painfully obvious— Mikael was winning. He pinned Klaus to the ground and put him in a chokehold, and Esmeray reacted without really thinking of what she was doing.
She tackled Mikael off of him and rolled to get up, but he was quicker, and punched her across the face. She tucked her legs in and kicked him back before thrusting her hand out and using magic to toss him into the nearest tree.
"Weak girl," he snarled as he got back up. "You rely on magic to subdue me, but that magic will be useless soon enough. You're just as pitiful as your father."
"Don't speak of my father," she snapped, coiling her hand and making Mikael grunt as he tried to ignore the pain of her squeezing his heart from outside of his body. "You aren't half the man that my father was."
She felt Klaus come to stand beside her, and raised her other hand, making the indestructible white oak stake fly out of Mikael's pocket and into her hand.
"RELEASE ME!" Mikael bellowed, glaring at Klaus. "FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!"
Klaus brought out Papa Tunde's blade from his own jacket and moved forward, thrusting it into Mikael's chest and leaving him to collapse back, unconscious.
When he beckoned his wrist to her, she didn't immediately know what it was for. But then, he gestured to her eye, and she felt, letting out a hiss of pain. Of course Mikael had bruised her eye and cut into her brow. She was lucky he hadn't blinded her. She bit into Klaus's wrist gently, just hard enough to draw blood so that she could drink.
"Never do that again," said Klaus quietly, stroking her hair as she drank. "He could have killed you. I am his target, not you."
"You think I could live on if you died, Klaus?" she said once she pulled back, wiping her mouth and handing him the white oak stake. "He would have killed you. I'd feel dead if I saw you die. I'd want to die."
"Don't say that," said Klaus, cupping her cheek. "I would not wish for you to let your life end simply because mine did."
There was a rustling, and they turned around to see Cami running up to them, panting heavily. "Where is she?" she yelled. "If something happened to her, Klaus, I swear to God—"
"Davina's fine," said Klaus simply. "She'll wake with a spectacular headache, but given her intentions for me, she should count herself lucky."
Cami let out a sigh of relief, clutching her chest. "Good..."
"Your heart is beating very fast," Esmeray noticed, going to her and putting her hand on her forehead, murmuring a spell to help soothe her. "Why did you rush here?"
"Because your boyfriend ditched me in the bar after making it seem like he was going to murder a teenager! I had to hitchhike and then run on the backgrounds of the Bayou!"
Esmeray gave Klaus a reproachful look. "You said you were going to question Cami, not force it out of her and make it seem like you were going to murder her friend!"
Klaus rolled his eyes. Thankfully, Cami was distracted now, seeing Mikael on the ground. "Is that—? Is he—?"
"He's still alive," said Klaus in delight. "In complete and utter agony."
Esmeray was the one who heard movement in the house. "Let me go check on Davina. What are you going to do with—?"
"I'm going to put him in the trunk," said Klaus, picking Mikael up and going to put him away as the two women moved into the cabin. There was a young man inside with Davina, checking on her. Esmeray moved forward and started to do a spell that would keep Davina asleep but also ensure she didn't have brain damage.
"Should we get her to the hospital?" asked Cami worriedly.
"She'll be fine, love," said the boy, who was looking at Esmeray curiously. "Seems we got a rather adept witch with us." He looked up as Klaus appeared in the doorway. "Oh, hello darling. Back to huff and puff and blow the house down?"
Klaus was unamused. "You know, it's funny how often a person's sharp tongue can end up cutting their own throat."
Cami looked frustrated with him. "He's just a kid, give him a break."
"Yeah, she's right," said the boy. "You know, you may want to try a bit of lavender under your pillow. Does wonders for stuck-up pillocks with anger issues."
"Shut the fuck up," said Esmeray as she got to her feet. "You're starting to bother me, and I might kill you myself."
"Stand up for your boyfriend often, do you?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
She cast him a cheeky smile. "I do when it comes to insolent brats who don't value their life a bit more." She looked up at Cami. "Davina will be fine. We can get her home, if you'd like."
"Yes, yes," said Klaus dismissively, waving his hand. "Go wait in the car, Camille. Esmeray, love, can you lift her?"
Esmeray nodded and slowly picked her up, seeing that the boy seemed intent on getting them to stay. "What?" she said, seeing he was staring at her.
"Just looking, love," he said simply.
"You've got a way with words," Klaus observed, looking beadily at him as Esmeray set Davina back down, only onto the couch this time.
"Well, I've traveled," the boy replied, coming up to Klaus.
Klaus sneered. "You seem to have crossed continents to order to weasel your way into Davina's good graces, thereby meddling in my family business. Strange, isn't it?" He then narrowed his eyes when the boy merely smirked. "Unless it's your family business. You know, ever since my mother and Finn, I was wondering when you might make an appearance, Kol."
Esmeray gaped at him in surprise as the boy bowed dramatically. "Then the jig is up! Hello, brother." He turned to Esmeray. "And you, love, I'm surprised you've gotten cozier with him since the last time we saw each other."
"Wish it was you?" she said blandly. "I haven't forgotten how you acted with me in the past. A little desperate, weren't you?"
"Not to worry, love, I've moved on," he said, motioning to Davina. He stared up at his brother. "You don't look pleased."
Klaus smirked. "It's not that I begrudge you hitching a ride back to the land of the living. It's just that you're making allthe wrong friends, brother. And, I have half a mind to show you how wrong you are."
Kol leaned in to whisper to Klaus, as if taunting him. "But you're not going to do that, are you? Because your girl is right here, and even if I annoy her, she wouldn't be pleased if you murdered me."
"I can still perfectly well tear your heart out myself," said Esmeray simply, slipping out the door to be beside Klaus. "But I'd rather try to have a good relationship with you, since you're Klaus's brother."
"And I am bloody honored to hear that," said Kol dramatically as she went toward the car to check on Cami.
But she went rigid seeing neither Mikael nor Cami was there. "Klaus!" she shrieked, looking around the open trunk and not seeing Papa Tunde's blade either. "KLAUS!"
He sped to her side. "No," he breathed, eyes wide in shock. "No..."
"He wants you to go after him," she said, pulling out her phone to call Elijah. He didn't answer, and she had to leave a voicemail. "Elijah, Mikael's on the loose, he has Papa Tunde's blade, and—"
"And the stake," said Klaus dejectedly, realizing he'd set the stake down inside of the car when he put Mikael in the trunk.
"And the stake," said Esmeray worriedly, "and she has Cami hostage. I think we need your help, so I really hope those wolf kids are safe already."
She hung up and looked at Klaus. "Well, do you want me to do a Locator Spell?"
"No, Davina has a way of controlling him," he said, walking back to the cabin. "Wake her up."
But they found Kol was blocking their way.
"Not happening," he said defensively. "In fact, you should probably get going, Nik. Mikael, he's probably jonesing for a restorative snack about now. It'd be a shame to find— uh, Cami, is it? Become nothing more than a bloodless husk."
"Thanks for being useless," said Esmeray irritably. "You just made our job that much harder." She looked at Klaus. "Think you can track her based on smell alone?"
"Yes, I can," he told her, offering her his arm. "Grab hold."