The Strix had not changed very much.
Aside from the fact that a few had been killed in the last five years, they were just as loyal as they'd been when Eisa left, which was surprising, considering that half of them didn't owe her anything anymore.
"Thank you all for getting here so quickly," said Eisa. "There is a threat, in this city we all have come to call our preferred home. There is much we still don't know, but I have sent you sufficient information to get you going. I ask you all to remain vigilant, to hide no truths, and to report everything relevant back to me. If any of you are found to be in line with this evil, I will not hesitate to send you rotting to the bottom of the ocean. Got it?"
They all nodded, before bowing their heads for a few seconds.
"Your first task," said Eisa, peering down to her phone. "Last night, myself, my brother and two friends of ours rescued four of the children who were involved in the ritual I mentioned. Today, I received word that none of them made it home. Someone has abducted them, and you must locate them. That is all."
The Strix left the building obediently to begin their search.
"How is she?" asked Eisa, rushing to the Compound, where Vincent was just getting started with the purification spell.
"Not doing too well," said Hayley, taking her hand immediately and squeezing it for comfort. "How did it go with the Strix?"
"They're going to help us keep an eye out. Have Kol and Freya had any luck with their trace?"
"No. The entire map keeps flooding with blood, and the spell doesn't seem to be working."
Eisa pursed her lips. "Either, that, or it's..."
"... everywhere," finished Hayley.
Hope gave a gasp, and looked up. "Mom?" she whispered. "Dad?"
"That's it," said Vincent as Hayley and Klaus rushed to their daughter's side. "Your little girl's purified."
Klaus was stroking her hair as he glanced up at the witch. "Thank you."
Vincent nodded. "Now, if she starts to feel any other symptoms—"
There was a squawking sound overhead, and a crow fell dead beside Hope. Both Klaus and Hayley instinctively wrapped their arms around Hope, covering her eyes as crow after crow started to fall around them, forming a perfect circle with a few crows falling outside of it.
"What is this?" demanded Klaus.
Vincent and Eisa were just as confused as him. "I don't know."
"Can you hear that?" said Hope, pushing her parents off of her and looking up. "It's whispers. Saying a name. Over and over. 'Kre Nah Han, Kre Nah Han.'"
"What does Kre Nah Han mean?" inquired Eisa.
"It's a nearly forgotten dialect," said Vincent slowly. "It's Creole. It means 'The Hollow.' The Hollow is coming."
Hope gave a cough, and leaned back into Klaus's arms. "Dad, I don't feel good. I'm sleepy."
"Keep her comfortable and make sure she eats a lot," said Vincent. "If she's feeling sick again, it means that whoever has the kids is starting the spell up again, and unless I purify them, Hope will keep feeling sick."
"What can we do?" asked Eisa. "My Strix are searching the city, but it might not be enough."
"I need to trace the magic," said Vincent. "I'll be with Freya and Kol— perhaps there is something else we can do to find out where the kids are. If you hear anything about their whereabouts, let me know immediately."
"Stay with Hope," Hayley told Klaus when he started to get up. "Marcel told me earlier he was going to question some of the Covens to see what they know. I want to go check it out. Elijah and Isela will be back with the herbs soon, and they can make a tea for Hope to be able to sleep soundly without any nightmares."
"I'll accompany you," offered Eisa. "No one should go anywhere alone right now."
Hayley nodded, and the two made their way to Tremé, where they knew Marcel would be interrogating the witches.
"Listen up, listen up," he said. "For five years now, we've stayed out of each other's business. Tended to our own. But now, your problems are becoming mine. Someone is taking children. As you know, I have one nonnegotiable rule: we do not mess with kids. Now, you've seen that graffiti." He pointed to the wall, where an Ouroboros was printed. "Someone here's got to know who's responsible. Right? So just give me a name. Hmm?"
"We don't owe you anything," snapped one of the witches. "You're no friend to witches."
"You don't trust him," said Hayley, making her and Eisa's presence known. "I get it. But one of those kids is my daughter. She's seven. She likes to paint, catch fireflies, make up stories. All I know is that she's sick. Right now, I don't care about the past. I'm just a mom asking you to help me."
The witch relented. "There's a girl named Lara. I saw her draw the same symbol on her window in blood."
"Excellent," said Eisa. "Where does this witch reside?"
The woman scoffed. "She's not a witch." She glared at Hayley. "She's one of your kind. A wolf. She ran off to the Bayou."
"Crap," said Hayley, once she, Marcel, and Eisa had started making their way to the Bayou. "Lara, yeah, I remember her... I came to visit just a few times in the past five years, and I met her."
"Does this sound like the kind of thing she would do?" asked Marcel.
Hayley shook her head. "She was sweet. I hope this is all a misunderstanding..." she pulled out her phone to call Klaus. "How is she?"
"She's sleeping," the hybrid responded. "Isela is brewing one of her medicinal concoctions. Tell me you have answers."
"We have a lead. A wolf who got caught up with the Hollow."
"A wolf involved in witch business?"
"Crazy, I know. I want to ask her a few questions."
"Well, regardless of her excuses or your loyalties, I expect you to show this traitor the error of her ways."
"I'll handle it." Hayley hung up as they reached the shack at the edge of the water, where a woman stood by herself. She recognized Lara, even from a distance. "She's not gonna want to talk to a vampire," she said to Eisa and Marcel. "I'll go."
"Fair warning," said Marcel, "last time Eisa and I came across one of the Hollow's goons, the dude tried to kill us."
Hayley nodded, before approaching the wolf. "Lara?" she asked. "It's Hayley. I don't know if—"
"I remember you," said the wolf numbly. "Hayley Marshall. I know why you're here. You're here because of the children. I'm sorry. I am. They're as good as dead."
"We're not here to hurt you," said Hayley, since she'd noticed Lara acknowledging Marcel and Eisa.
"You can't hurt me more than I've already hurt myself," said Lara shakily. "I didn't know this was gonna happen. I didn't know they were gonna bring children into it."
"It's okay," said Hayley soothingly. "Just tell us who 'they' are."
"Those that serve the Hollow. Followers of the blue light. I thought we were doing something good. Trying to take back our city from the vampires. New Orleans belongs to all of us, not just them. And the Hollow offered us the power we needed. So long as we pledged our allegiance."
"But Lara, you're a Crescent," said Hayley. "You have the Pack, you don't need this cult."
Lara scoffed. "You were gone all the time. You chose the Original Family over your own kind. Don't you see? Our Pack means nothing. You mean nothing!"
Hayley looked guilty. "You're right. I wasn't there as much as I should have been. But I have a daughter now. And, Lara, she's one of the kids. She's one of the kids that's in danger. So, please, help us help them."
Lara laughed bitterly. "You can't help them. The Hollow wants power. The kind that only comes from sacrifice. Those kids will die so it can get stronger. And it will feed. And it will rise. And we will all bow before it. The great beast. Even you. My only mercy is I won't be here to see it." She brought out a knife faster than they could react and stabbed her own throat. Hayley caught her before she fell into the water, but was unable to stop her from dying.
"That went wonderfully," said Eisa sarcastically, checking the messages her lieutenants had sent her. "At least the Strix found something. Abandoned ambulance here, in the Bayou. No kids, no driver, but there are some herbs that suggest the Hollow's followers did some spell to keep them from being tracked. Unless we break that— oh, well, it seems like it doesn't need to be broken."
"What is it?" asked Marcel.
"Vincent has an even better lead. Well, not better, this is quite depressing, but... his friend Will Kinney is in league with the Hollow, and they're tracking him here, to the Bayou. We're to meet them at this location." She marked it on her phone, and started to walk in that direction.
The hybrid and the two vampires had to walk around a mile and a half before they came across Vincent, Elijah, Klaus, and Kol, who all looked equally concerned about their situation.
"Is Hope any better?" asked Eisa.
Elijah sighed. "Isela and Freya believe she is stabilizing, but..."
"She remains frozen to the touch," said Klaus gravely. "But she is fighting it. Whatever it is."
"Once we save the rest of the kids, we save your little girl," said Vincent. He pointed down a marked path. "Trail leads off this way, so I guess we, uh, follow the breadcrumbs."
Klaus snorted. "Tactless savages holding a ghost-raising rave. Best make short work of them. I say we—"
"—we split up," said Marcel at the same time as him, the two nodding at one another.
"Good idea," said Vincent. "Klaus, Kol, and Eisa on one end. Me, Elijah, Hayley, and Marcel on the other."
They split off, each following the same rough path, though at a different angle, so that they would end up on opposite sides of a clearing where the Hollow's followers seemed to have chosen to perform the sacrifice.
"The wolf girl mentioned a blue light," said Eisa as they walked. "Sound familiar to you, Brother?"
"I do recall a legend I heard once, of a spirit that presented itself as a bright blue ball of light," said Kol. "I don't quite know the rest of it. This is not good. I won't sugarcoat it for either of you. We've the advantage at the moment, not fully settled in, not openly present. If this thing learns that practically the whole family is here... if it learns about the newest member on the way..."
"Don't even remind me," said Klaus gruffly, looking panicked, though he was trying not to show it. "It's a hybrid."
"How do you know?" asked Eisa.
"The obstetrician mentioned 'unbelievable health,' and the bloody ultrasound machine was going haywire. We know not which type of hybrid, but if we had to guess..."
"Wolf and vampire," mentioned Eisa. "And if it's wolf and witch, it'll be almost as strong as Hope."
He nodded, wringing his hands together.
They found the Hollow's followers greeting Will Kinney upon his arrival.
"Now that you've returned, brother, you may join us as we claim our power," the head acolyte said. "Our rightful place. And lay waste to all who would deny our master. Are you prepared to prove your loyalty to the Hollow?"
Will nodded. "I know what I have to do. I'm not afraid."
"We should begin," the acolyte said, turning to an altar filled with skulls of all sorts, specifically a large alligator skull at the top, surrounded by other bones.
"Enough with this circus of sadists," sneered Klaus, ripping a tree branch off of the conifer beside him and hurling it through the air, impaling the acolyte's throat and killing him within seconds. The others gathered around got in defensive positions, but were no match for the swarm of supernaturals that overtook them.
All but Will were dead within the first ten seconds. Vincent, Hayley, Marcel, and Eisa all lunged to get the children, who were wrapped completely, and nearly dead. Kol had rushed to a nearby basin, where the spell was set up, and started to toss in a load of herbs that would stop its progress.
But there was a sudden crash, and fire burst out in a circle, trapping Klaus and Elijah just as they'd made to knock Will unconscious. Thinking he was controlling it, Kol leapt at Will, putting him in a chokehold and causing him to sink to the ground moments later. And yet, the fire did not go out.
"What the bloody hell is happening to them?" said Eisa as her brothers knelt down, staring at the alligator skull.
"Oh man, we got this all wrong," said Vincent. "They wanted us here."
"Why would they—?"
"They want to channel your power, and anchor the Hollow to the living world." He knelt beside the children, whose faces had been uncovered. "Okay, they're alive. These kids are linked to that ritual. We can't free Elijah and Klaus unless we break the spell."
"How the bloody hell do we break it?" demanded Kol as he came toward them. "I've tried tossing herbs—"
"It's a sacrificial ritual, herbs don't do much," said Vincent, patting his head. "I can't break it unless I kill one of the kids."
"We can't kill the kids," said Eisa sharply.
"Come on, Vincent, I know there's another way," insisted Marcel, watching as Hayley tried to wake the children up, to no avail.
Vincent snapped his fingers. "There might be a loophole if I switch the link. Right now, the kids are powering that ritual. But if I link it to the two of you—" he pointed at Kol and Eisa, "you could die in their place."
"I'm sorry," said Kol with a snort, "but that sounds an awful lot like you wanting me to be killed."
"I'm suggesting we stake you with wood," said Vincent. "You both die, temporarily, and that might be enough to break the spell. I need to try it with both of you."
"Fine," said Eisa, which made Kol nod. "We'll do it."
"Marcel, Hayley," said Vincent, gesturing to branches nearby. "Be ready." He held his hands up and began to chant. "Mare. Mare leurs. Mare leurs esprits. Mare leurs esprits! Mare leurs esprits! Mare leurs esprits! Mare leurs esprits! Do it now!"
Kol and Eisa both gave sharp gasps as they were staked right in the heart, their bodies desiccating and knocking them both to the ground.
They were up again within minutes, and saw that Klaus and Elijah had been freed from the circle of fire, though both looked visibly shaken.
"What happened in there?" asked Eisa once Marcel and Vincent had returned the children to their parents. "Did you see or hear anything?"
"I shut my eyes," said Klaus, though he seemed doubtful, as if he wasn't sure if he really had, or just intended to do it, but never actually went through with it.
"I'm sure I'm fine," said Elijah a bit dismissively. "I could ask Isela to make me one of her teas."
"Well, tea won't do much if you don't explain what—"
"I'm fine," repeated Elijah, a bit more shortly. Eisa made a face, holding her hands up in surrender. "It was simply a wretched day. What matters is that Hope is better."
"Yes, he's quite right," said Klaus before brushing past them to see his daughter.
"Is it just me, or was that weird as hell?" said Hayley once Elijah had gone to Isela.
"It wasn't just you," said Eisa. "We should get Hope somewhere safe."
"I want her to stay close," said Hayley. "I know she's probably best off with Cami and Davina, but I don't want her so far away. Somewhere more... more accessible."
"We could take her to the Bayou with Mary. You said she came back with you when Hope was sick. I can have some of my Strix roam around the Bayou to guard. I'll compel them to leave the wolves alone, they physically won't be able to follow any killing urges they may have, not that they do have any, since I keep them around solely because of their lack of prejudice against other supernaturals."
"I think that's a good idea," said Hayley. "Tomorrow, we'll take her there."
When the following morning came and Hope was feeling better, they escorted her through the woods, letting her walk ahead, skipping through the flowers and trying to catch the butterflies that flew off of them. Sometimes, she'd stop to pick some of the flowers, gathering them in her left hand.
"What would you think about moving out here?" asked Hayley, taking in a breath of fresh air. "I liked living out here."
Eisa shrugged. "I got fashionable rainboots for a reason. I wouldn't mind it... I just refuse to chop wood. Splinters are no joke."
Hayley laughed. "Yeah, I wasn't going to ask that of you, I don't think an axe is your preferred tool for anything."
"Right you are. Also, if we do come to live out here, that house better have a fully functional bathroom, because I am notbathing in the lake."
"Grandma Mary!"
They looked up as Hope reached Mary's cabin, pulling her into a hug before offering her the flowers she'd picked. "Why don't you run on inside," said the older woman. "I need to talk to your mama."
Hope skipped into the cabin, and Mary frowned a bit at the sight of Eisa. "Didn't know you were bringing her."
Hayley looked a bit embarrassed. "Mary, come on."
"Vampires aren't welcome," said Mary. "You're the exception. Rules of the house."
"I won't be staying," said Eisa. "I came to make sure Hope made it safely. And, also, to inform you that several vampires loyal to me may be in the woods, keeping an eye on things, but they've been compelled to leave the wolves be."
Mary didn't look all that happy to hear this, but Hayley smiled, and patted Eisa's arm. "Thanks. I'll be here for a while. See you later."
"Stay safe," said Eisa, not daring to kiss Hayley in front of Mary. She sped off instead, checking her phone once she was at the edge of the Bayou. She raised her own brows, seeing that one of her lieutenants had informed her of a lead at an abandoned house not far from where she was.
She made her way there, and found a blue light waiting for her. She shut her eyes immediately, but it spoke.
"Even without seeing, you will give me what I seek," a strangely young female voice said.
She felt as though she was being covered in a blanket made of ice shards. Her skin started to tingle, with the sensation of needles being inserted into every pore. She tried to move, but she felt too cold, and slowly, her own body moved itself to kneel in front of the light.
"You, I cannot kill," the girl crooned, causing Eisa to force her eyes to remain tightly shut. "But you, I need."
She felt as though she was starting to choke, and she gasped, able to hold her throat. She felt a burning in her gut, which did not mix well with the cold, and she groaned out in pain, clutching her shoulder instead as she felt a sharp jab, right where Lucien had bitten her three years ago.
"The cure still runs through your veins," the girl continued, and Eisa whimpered as she felt the old wound tingling. Her eyes were still closed, but she could feel the venom exiting her body through where it had entered in the first place. "It would have taken several more weeks for it to disappear completely. That, I cannot remove... but the venom... which is perhaps more useful, I can take."
"Stop," said Eisa, trying to cover her shoulder to keep the venom from flowing out completely. "Don't—"
"You cannot stop me, fool. You cannot even look at me without losing your mind. And yet, I am indebted to you... you are providing me with the weapon I need to fuel my rebirth... and it is because of you that I am free. You, after all, had the idea to release the power of the Ancestral Realm to vanquish your enemy. You anchor me here. And so, I must let you live."
Eisa felt her eyes slowly being forced to open. She tried to resist it, but each time she tried to force her eyelids back down, it was as though she began to fall asleep, and the last thing she needed was to lose her consciousness.
At last, her eyes snapped open, and the blue light overtook her.
A/N: Happy 600 pages!