Eisa's 'information' session turned into a 'therapy' session.
"Thank you for meeting with me, darling," said Eisa when Jay opened the door of the hotel room he'd asked her to come to. She pecked his cheek before striding in, holding up a bottle of wine.
"Ah, she got the good stuff," said Jay, rubbing his hands together. Eisa could have sworn he'd somehow gotten a new tattoo. "So, what's up?"
She batted her eyelashes, seating herself at the edge of the bed. "Can you blame a girl for wanting an encore?"
Jay winked. "Can I use that to brag? An Original can't keep her hands off of me."
She scrunched up her nose. "Don't brag, dear, it's unbecoming. Marcel did it first. Rebekah's been obsessed with him since the 1800s."
He snapped his fingers. "Damn. I tried."
"Just enjoy it while it lasts," said Eisa, smoothing her own hands up her thighs, causing her skirt to ride up. "I won't be in this godforsaken city for much longer, and I'd like to have fun while I'm here, if you'd be a willing participant."
Jay licked his lips, setting the bottle of wine down. He locked the door, and Eisa quirked a brow, reaching over her chest to remove her shirt.
This would take a bit more focus. She had to wait for the exact right moment, one that would last longer than the initial connection she used last time. Before, she had taken advantage of the fact that his mind would be clouded temporarily (for about one to three seconds) when their bodies first came together. It worked, because it was their introduction to each other. He knew her now, and she knew him, and it would be insufficient.
So, she took control. She worked to please him, remaining focused to make sure he didn't try and enter her mind. She waited and waited, letting him lose more of himself each time her body came up against his.
His climax was her opening.
That cloud in his mind would be up for ten seconds at least, and thirty seconds at most. She slipped into his mind, kissing him hard and moaning into his mouth to give him more to think about.
She saw Marcel, rescuing Davina, after the Harvest girls had been slaughtered without their knowledge, in order to carry out the transfer of magic into the earth. She saw Jay being told that if the Harvest wasn't completed, the witches would lose their magic, and Davina would keep her life. She saw Marcel killing Jane-Anne Deveraux, and later, Jay being sent to speak with Sophie, who seemed determined to find Davina. The most curious bit she got was right before their meeting.
"I'm going out," Jay had told Marcel.
"So am I," he said. "I'm taking Klaus Mikaelson to the Bayou with me. I need them out of the way so I can get Davina somewhere else. Where are you headed?"
"Just to do a sweep of Algiers," Jay had lied. "I want to make sure the Algiers Coven isn't up to anything to help the French Quarter witches."
"Good idea," said Marcel. "Hey, be careful, Jay. Rebekah and Eisa are lurking around, and considering you've already gotten cozy with Eisa once..."
"I take vervain, don't worry," said Jay reassuringly. "Besides, it was a one-night stand. I mean nothing to her, and she means nothing to me."
Eisa found herself smirking as she withdrew. Jay hadn't told anyone where he was headed.
"Fucking shit," groaned Jay as Eisa rolled off of him, holding the blanket up as she slipped her underwear back on. He watched her as she got up, wearing only her lingerie, to get the bottle of wine for them. "Damn, a lot of people say that the older the vampire you sleep with, the better time you'll have, cause of the experience. I guess it really is true."
Eisa winked, handing him a glass, and pouring the wine for him. "Give yourself more credit, darling, you're pretty good even if you're young."
"Am I really good?" he asked, sitting up. "You didn't..."
She shook her head. "Have a lot on my mind, honestly. I suppose I didn't enjoy it as much as I did last time."
He patted her arm, offering her the wine instead. "You look stressed. What's up?"
She sighed, and sat up on the bed, deciding to spill. "I'm starting to have feelings for someone that I'm not supposed to have feelings for."
Jay imitated her, getting ready to listen. "Oh? Who is this mystery person?"
Eisa bit her lip, playing the part of over-sharer, just to keep him there, thinking he was the one acquiring information. "The reason I'm in New Orleans is because my brother Niklaus knocked up this werewolf girl. Here, we'll call her 'H.' She's... she's beautiful. She's strong, and stubborn... which is a bit annoying, but also admirable... and she's been kind to me even when I've acted so brusque."
Jay leaned in, pupils dilated, demonstrating his interest. Of course he was interested, this was the first time he was hearing about this. "No wonder you didn't finish, you like someone else. A girl, at that. I thought—"
Eisa laughed dryly. "You thought I was straight? No. I'm pansexual homoromantic. I can have sex with anyone, but romantically... I've only ever been attracted to those who identify as female. I'm surprised you didn't know. There are homophobic vampires everywhere, and they all love to be homophobic towards me. That's why I even started my hit list."
"So, don't take this the wrong way, but how did you know? Like, how long have you been out of the closet?"
Eisa rolled her eyes. "Next time, don't ask that so openly. Some queer people haven't a problem answering, but I personally despise such direct questions. I'd rather be the one to decide when I wish to tell someone those things. Those of us who have been through a lot are... less prone to enjoy being quizzed on our homosexuality the instant we're out to a new person."
Jay looked at her apologetically, and she got to talking. She needed to rant. "Some part of me has always known. I always felt more drawn to the girls I grew up with. There was a woman, the first Petrova doppelgänger. Her name was Tatia. She was my friend, and I... I had the biggest crush on her, and didn't realize it until it was too late. I never understood why I felt the things I did. I never understood why I was jealous, seeing my brothers with her. I just knew that I didn't feel like I could like any of the men in the village. My father wished for me to marry, and I really did try to find someone I fancied. None of the males caught my eye.
"When my brother killed our mother, we fled. We lived in the de Martel castle for a bit. The Count's son, Tristan, tried to court me. I felt nothing for him. Instead, I was crushing on his sister, Aurora, who was with my brother, Niklaus. It wasn't until I got to speaking to people in Tuscany that I realized what it was. I was attracted to females. Elijah and I traveled after that, and I started to experiment. I slept with some men, enjoyed it. Tried to forge a relationship, couldn't. I slept with some women, enjoyed it more. Tried to forge a relationship, and could. My first girlfriend, my first love, was a woman named Aya. She was my first sireling, too. I wanted to be with her forever. She had been the one to lift me up, when I was at my lowest.
"Before I met Aya, I'd been with a woman... She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, let's call her. I despise her. She's been dead for centuries. I made sure of it, after what she did to me. She and I had been getting to know one another, and she'd been the first woman I ever slept with. I thought she liked me, and I wished for us to become more serious. Then, one night, I was ambushed in my bed. The woman had been caught kissing me, earlier in the day, and she lied to her family and the other men who lived in her village— some of whom were vampires— that I had been the one to seduce her. That I was forcing her to do it."
Eisa felt herself starting to tear up, and moved aside before Jay could try and put his hand on hers. "They beat me. Staked me all over. Lit me on fire. Bathed me in vervain. Elijah had been running an errand, and he didn't arrive until much later. The entire time, that woman... the woman I thought I loved... she was yelling such horrid things. Calling me names and exposing me. I hadn't wished to come out in that village, because I knew the type of people that lived there. I told her the truth because, well, I thought she was... too. She wasn't. She'd been experimenting, and she decided she didn't like it. She didn't like me. She left, before Elijah arrived.
"Elijah... he hates losing control over himself. But when he saw what they were doing to me, he lost it. He killed the lot of them, just before they could try to cut my head off— they'd already managed to rip my heart out, but they knew I'd come back from it. I felt so violated, so filthy. Guilty, because my brother had to tap into the darkest parts of himself to save me. I cried for days. I couldn't bring myself to get up.
"Elijah compelled some of the women in another town to come and help me bathe, coax me into drinking their blood. Nik came to help, because I'd refused to allow Elijah to tell Rebekah and Kol. I couldn't beat the thought of them seeing me that way. I wished to desiccate, instead of continue living. I'd... I'd made a comment to Elijah that I'd return to Nik's side, and lure Mikael in so that he'd kill me with the white oak stake he possessed. Nik cried that day. It's the only time I've ever really felt that my brother loved me.
"I eventually found the woman and killed her. It was anticlimactic. I hated myself. I saw myself as being defective. I met Aya in that time and she... she showed me that there was nothing wrong with me. The ones at fault were those who couldn't be accepting of me, simply because I loved women, and not men. Aya healed me. She taught me how love could be pure and good. How a partner should be understanding and willing to die by their lover's side. She told me stories of other vampires who'd had a partner that 'experimented' with them, and said horrible things when they parted ways. I realized I wasn't alone. I had her, and I fell for her.
"When my brothers took me from her, it broke me. She was my everything. But they remembered what I'd said, about wanting Mikael to kill me. They worried, because Mikael was already killing many of the Strix vampires that Elijah and I had sired. I became a terrible person after that. I'd been so motherly and kind before, and without Aya... I just didn't wish to be nice to anyone. I wished for everyone to hurt the way I hurt. I started hunting homophobes. Expanded my target list after that wasn't enough for me.
"Some places I lived in were accepting of me. Others weren't. The worst part is that there still are many homophobic vampires. They had the strength to subdue me and torture me. I've gotten stronger, emotionally and physically, because I've had to fight tooth and nail to save my own life. I've been killed and revived repeatedly as 'punishment' for being homosexual. And all around the world, even today, people are cruel to those who identify as anything other than straight.
"I've tried to help, where I can. Killing oppressors. There are things I wish I could have prevented. What happened at the Stonewall Inn in 1969... some vampires were behind it. The Holocaust— some vampires wee helping Hitler. There were vampires who owned slaves. Throughout history, there have been so many bad seeds. I've heard many make comments about the fact that if vampires, witches, and werewolves were really so powerful, they could have stopped all that from happening. Let me tell you, many of us have tried our absolute hardest. But when there are vampires, witches, and werewolves who are Nazis and racists and transphobes and homophobes... it makes it so bloody hard.
"I hate this world. I've been bitter and apathetic for so long, because it feels as though nothing's changed. Nowadays, I don't get tortured anymore. But others do. I can't tell you how many conversion camps I've shut down. I feel better, killing those who are cruel. If I have to be a psychopath, if I have to be a murderer, if I have to be a victim to those who seek to oppress those who are like me... then I'll retaliate in the best way I know how. I'll go into battle and kill, one by one, or many at a time, any vampire who mistreats others.
"I've been told I do too much. That I'm... how do the youth say it, nowadays? Extra. Is it extra to defend those who are being assaulted just for loving someone of the same sex as them? Is it extra to remove from the world anyone who judges others by the color of their skin? It's why I do what I do. I kill, I infiltrate, I seduce. I do what I have to do to keep myself and my family safe."
She put her head in her hands. "And somehow, I just don't want to tell all of this to Hayley. If by some miracle, she fancies me now, what if she doesn't, when she hears about all that I've done? What if she starts treating me as some dish that's going to break at any minute? What if she doesn't want me around her child?
"I don't wish to have feelings for her, because if I feel, I can get hurt. She could break my heart, or I could break hers, and it would kill me. I don't wish to see her hurt. This world can hurt her, for caring about me. She could be ruined, just from her association with my family. I felt so terrified yesterday, thinking someone could have dismembered her when I wasn't there to protect her. All my siblings have been with someone of the same sex of them, but none of them have fully stuck with it. My brothers had boyfriends, but they ultimately prefer women. Rebekah has had girlfriends, but she's so obsessed with Marcel, that no one else matters.
"My siblings are accepting of me, yes. But they'll never truly understand. Nor will anyone who hasn't been through what I, and many others have. How can I be completely happy when I don't even know whether she'll live long enough to see her own child? She's mortal and so... so vulnerable. I hate feeling this afraid for someone else's safety. For all I know, she could be one of those fools who still believes that children can 'catch homosexuality' from the television.
"I wish to know her more. God... I wish to know everything about her. I wish to know her passions, her dreams. But if I learn that... I'll fall in love with her. I'll... I'll become soft. I'll have something to lose. Anyone who wishes to harm me can use her against me. And even if no one does, she could decide, one day, that she wants nothing to do with me, and I'll have to live with it. It's confusing. It's ridiculous."
Jay shook his head. "It's not ridiculous. It's okay to feel something for someone, Eisa. I think you should see where things go. Being in love doesn't automatically make you weak. You're experienced, you're focused, you know how to fight. If her life is in danger, all you have to do is protect her. It's not like you'll freeze up. You Originals have almost no humanity left— that's what everyone says. But you can feel. And there's nothing wrong with that."
Eisa cast him an almost sad look. "Oh, Jay. I wish I didn't have to kill you." She seized his throat, and he started to choke. "But I've just told you everything that I usually keep locked away in a tiny, tiny box within my body. I know that you'll run to Marcel, first chance you get, to tell him about Hayley. And I can't let you hurt her. I can't."
She squeezed so hard, his head popped off, and Eisa didn't even flinch as blood splattered onto her face.
She cleaned the room thoroughly, went to check out, and snuck out with the body stuffed into a suitcase. She went to burn it, in the outskirts of town, and buried what remained in a hole that was fifteen feet deep.
"Well, then," she sighed, heading to St. Anne's to fetch Elijah. "That's that."
Once inside, she could hear a conversation between her younger brother and the Harvest witch.
"You'll keep your promise about your mother's spellbook?" the young girl was asking.
"I will," replied Elijah. "You know, difficulties aside, I value my family above everything. I am sorry that yours failed you."
"Your brother Klaus handed you to Marcel in a box, yet you still don't give up on him?"
"Well, I've given up on giving up. It's an affliction. I will fight for my family until my last breath."
"And I'll fight the witches until mine."
"Cute." Eisa slow clapped, looking at her brother. "Ready to go, brother?"
Elijah nodded. "Davina, this is my sister, Eisa. The second eldest of our family. She was once a witch, nearly as powerful as my mother. She learned from Esther's grimoire. If you require assistance learning, let us know. I'm certain Eisa would be delighted to teach you."
Eisa wasn't too pleased about being offered up as a teacher, but she mustered up a fake smile and pulled her brother into a hug once he stepped out of Davina's room.
"I must go and see Niklaus," said Elijah. "You ought to get home. Make sure that Hayley is okay."
She went, even though she wasn't sure what she was expected to say to Hayley.
"I see you made it back in one piece," she observed, when she found Rebekah drinking, with Hayley as company (though she had only a glass of water in hand).
"I was just telling her," said Rebekah, "that was her last trip to the Bayou."
Hayley looked at Eisa apologetically, just as the Original said, "If you ever want that clump of cells in your tum to ever see the light of day, you ought not be so reckless. Contrary to whatever you might think, I'd actually like to meet my niece."
"Aw," teased Rebekah, offering Eisa a glass of bourbon. "It sounds like you were worried, Eisa."
Eisa glared at her, signaling for her to shut her trap. "So," said Hayley, trying to be nice, "how was... work?"
The Original drank before answering. "Well, I found out about the Harvest, and then I killed him. I really do hope Jay and Marcel weren't too close."
"Marvelous," said Rebekah, clapping her hands. The two sisters looked back as the door opened. "Nik, finally!" cried the blonde. "What—"
Elijah walked in, and Rebekah beamed, running to hug him. "Elijah! You're safe! Now that you're home, is your first plan to kill Niklaus?"
"No," said Eisa, nudging her brother with her hip. "He wants to offer me up as a tutor for that little witch Marcel has in the attic."
Elijah rolled his eyes. "You're being absurd, Eisa, you likely won't have to teach her anything. I simply had to offer. She's quite capable of learning on her own."
"She better be."
Elijah beckoned them all to the adjacent study, and went to stand behind the desk, as if ready to make some glorious speech. "Everything that brought us here to New Orleans was a lie. This story that Sophie Deveraux fabricated, this struggle for control of the French Quarter, this war between vampires and witches, wasn't over territory at all, this was over Davina. Eight months ago, Sophie Deveraux and her sister Jane-Anne lost everything. Now, four months after that, a young pregnant girl wanders into their restaurant. Suddenly, all hope is renewed. Jane-Anne actually sacrificed her life so that her sister could use us to find Davina. If Sophie Deveraux is successful in capturing Davina, she can return Jane-Anne's daughter back to life. We thought we'd come here to wage a war for power. This is about family. In order to return her niece to life, Sophie Deveraux will fight to the death. That makes her more dangerous than anyone."
"Wonderful," said Eisa. "So, the first task tomorrow is to find a way to unlink Hayley from Sophie, yes?"
Elijah nodded. "I trust you can pick out the spell that will work best? I can take it to Davina and have her do it for us, without telling her what it is for."
Eisa frowned. "Hold on. That grimoire isn't in a language that the French Quarter Coven uses. Emphasis on the French. She's never studied that, and you won't even be giving her the details for it? How can you trust that she'll get it done? I think we ought to get a different, more experienced witch to do it."
"I trust Davina. I know that she has only recently allied with me, but she has magic beyond belief, and I know she can accomplish this."
"Well, maybe she does, but you'll have to wait til tomorrow to see her, to make sure Marcel doesn't catch you! I say I contact one of my witches and get this Unlinking Spell done tonight."
Elijah held up his hand. "Have a bit of faith, Eisa, as I've always had in you. We have worked together countless times, and I know that, if you select the right spell, Davina will perform it flawlessly."
Eisa abruptly slammed her hand down on the desk, making her siblings frown, and Hayley flinch. "You may be willing to risk Hayley's life, but I'm not!" she snarled. "The longer we wait, the more danger she's in! I was the one who did magic in the past, Elijah, not you, so I'd rather not entrust our niece and her mother's life to a newbie witch who can't control her power, considering she has four times more of it than she's supposed to!"
Klaus seemed amused with her outburst. Rebekah, curious. Elijah, on the other hand, was almost disappointed.
"Control yourself," he told her sharply. "Davina will not fail us. If, in fact, her attempt does not work, then you can contact your witch."
Eisa almost wanted to tackle Elijah. Maybe rip his heart out, leave him dead for a bit. Instead, she scoffed, and stormed upstairs.
Hayley, to no one's surprise, followed after her.