While Elijah and Klaus read books of their very own and Klaus occasionally glanced up to look at Elijah, Annabelle grabbed the wrist of the dead girl and let her blood fall into her glass, just as Rebekah entered the room and looked between her three siblings before she said to them, "So this is what you do the first time we're back together as a family-- vampire book club."
Klaus said to her, "Reading edifies the mind, sister." Then he glanced up at Elijah and asked, "Isn't that right, Elijah?"
Elijah replied, "Yes. That's quite right, Niklaus."
Rebekah as she gestured towards the dead girl lying on the table, "And what's this business?"
With a wave of his hand, Elijah told her, "This is a peace offering."
Klaus said to Rebekah, "I presumed, after so much time desiccating in a coffin, that my big brother might be a bit peckish."
While he continued to read from his book, Elijah told Rebekah, "So I explained to my little brother that forgiveness cannot be bought. I'd simply prefer to see a change in behavior that indicates contrition and personal growth, not this nonsense."
Klaus replied, "I couldn't very well let her go to waste, could I?" While Elijah glanced up from his book and looked over at Klaus, Klaus said, "Besides, at least someone in this room is actually putting her to use."
Then Rebekah and Elijah looked over at Annabelle, who had long forgotten the dead girl and was now drinking out of the blood that was now sloshing around inside of her glass, before they both looked back at Klaus, while Rebekah said, "Well, I suppose I'll fetch the rubbish bin because she's staining a two-hundred-year-old carpet."
While Elijah tilted his head and watched as the woman's blood dripped onto the carpet, Annabelle grabbed yet another glass and put it where the blood was falling to ensure that she would have some more blood until Rebekah decided to dispose of the body.
* * *
While Annabelle drank out of a blood bag that Rebekah had practically thrown at her, Rebekah said to Klaus, "Poetry about poisoned apples from dead trees. Looks like someone is worried about impending daddyhood."
After a couple seconds of silence, Klaus replied, "Nonsense. Elijah is back. In his presence, all problems turn to pixie dust and float away."
While Elijah entered the room, he said to them, "Strange, I don't recall any pixie dust from the darkness of the coffin I was recently forced to endure."
As Elijah turned a page in a book, Rebekah asked him, "What are you doing with Mother's spell book?"
Elijah told her, "Well, in exchange for my freedom, I promised the witch Davina that I would share a few pages from Mother's grimoire. It'll help her learn to control her magic. Thought we'd begin with a little unlinking spell."
While Annabelle only scoffed in response, Rebekah said to him, "Wait. You want to use her to unlink Hayley from Sophie Deveraux?"
Elijah replied, "Sophie brought us to this town under false pretenses. She doesn't just want us to take down Marcel and his minions. She wants to take Davina back. So she yoked her own cause to ours with magic, threats, and half-truths. Well, no more. As of now, our deal with Sophie Deveraux is null and void."
Annabelle asked him, "So does that mean that once Hayley is unlinked from Sophie that we can actually kill the lying little witch?"
After he raised a finger at Annabelle, Elijah said to Klaus, "Niklaus, I need you and Annabelle to come with me. I need five minutes alone with Davina. The two of you need to make certain that I am not interrupted." Then he pointed at Rebekah and told her, "You stay here and watch Hayley."
While Annabelle only grinned in response, Rebekah asked, "How did I get elected supernanny?"
Klaus replied as he got up out of his chair and left the room, "More importantly, who put him in charge?"
* * *
From where she was seated on the second floor of the church, Annabelle tilted her head and watched as Cami entered the confessional booth shortly before she heard Cami say, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It's been, oh, a year since I've had a good conversation with you."
The man on the other side of the confessional booth said to Cami, "Camille."
Cami said to the man, "You've been avoiding me, Uncle K."
The man replied, "My favorite niece? Never."
After she scoffed to herself, Cami said, "Don't lie. This is a church. Besides, I came about professional advice... about Sean. Apparently, because I'm a masochist, I went by Sean's grave today, and--"
The man said to her, "Damn it. I was hoping to get that cleaned up before you saw it. I hope it didn't upset you too much."
Cami told him, "It didn't bother me at all. That's the problem. That's why I'm here. I've slept like a baby every night this week, even though my twin brother hacked nine priests to death not two feet from this confessional. A guy I've been seeing, Marcel, has been blowing me off. Whatever. I've gone on two dates with the guy, and I'm more upset about that than seeing 'murderer' scrawled across my brother's grave."
The man said to her, "It's called healing, Cami."
Cami replied, "For months after the massacre, I couldn't think of anything else, and then suddenly, nothing. I need to feel that pain. Without it, I feel broken, empty, like there's someone to blame and I'm letting them get away with it."
The man said to her, "Listen. If you have found a way to turn it off, don't question it. The only person that is responsible for Sean's behavior is Sean."
Cami asked him, "Do you really believe that?"
The man replied, "Yes. I do."
After a couple seconds of silence, Annabelle could see Cami walking out of the confessional booth before she quickly walked down the aisle and towards the main doors of the church, which resulted in her tilting her head, while Klaus stood there with furrowed eyebrows.
* * *
While Elijah pulled a dark haired witch up onto her feet, he asked, "What happened?"
The witch told him, "It was Agnes. Her men took Sophie."
It was then that Klaus said from behind Elijah, "Day one with you in charge, brother, and already the witch linked to Hayley has been abducted by zealots."
While Annabelle did nothing but chuckle to herself in response, which got the witch to eye the amused Original, Elijah asked her, "Where is she?"
The witch replied, "If I tell you where Agnes is, you'll just kill her."
Klaus asked her, "Is it that obvious?"
The witch told them, "Look. I know she's a little cuckoo, but she's our last living Elder. That might not mean a lot to you, but it means plenty to us. The Elders are the only ones who can do important spells."
Elijah said to her, "Like completing the Harvest Ritual."
The witch asked him, "You know about that?"
Elijah replied, "Oh, you'd be astounded by the things I know."
It was then that Klaus said as he walked towards the two of them with Annabelle close behind him, "Allow me to entertain you with today's list of priorities. One, unlike your friend Sophie so she no longer controls the fate of the woman carrying my child. Two, convince my brother to accept my heartfelt apologies for some recently dodgy behavior. Three, there is no three."
As he started to walk back towards them, Elijah said to the witch, "I believe what my brother is attempting to communicate here is that neither the life of this Elder nor the Harvest Ritual nor your coven's connection to magic are of any relevance to him whatsoever."
With a smile plastered on her face, Annabelle took a step forward and said, "So either you tell us where this bloody Elder of yours is hiding, or I go on ahead and find her myself before I kill her."
While the witch looked over at Annabelle with furrowed eyebrows, Elijah said to the witch, "Now talk."
* * *
As Elijah started to rip the chains off of Sophie's arms, Sophie told them, "Agnes stuck me with a needle. Cursed objects were created a long time ago. We use them so we don't get busted by Marcel for doing magic. The one she used is called the Needle of Sorrows. It was cursed in 1860, when--"
It was then that Klaus said to her, "Jump ahead a few decades and tell us what it does, love."
Sophie said to them, "It has one purpose-- to kill a child in utero by raising her blood temperature."
Elijah said to himself, "It's for a miscarriage."
While Annabelle only sighed to herself in response as she clenched her hands into fists, Elijah asked Sophie, "So how much time do we have to fix this?"
Sophie told him, "It'll do what it's meant to by tonight's high tide, and-- believe me-- it will work. I saw her use a similar object on a kid who went mad and killed a bunch of priests."
As he took a couple steps forward, Klaus said to Sophie, "I'd like to have a little chat with this Agnes. Where can I find her?"
Sophie replied, "You won't. There's a thousand places she could hole up to wait it out."
Elijah said to her, "That's precisely why we need to unlike you from Hayley, no more danger towards her or the child."
Sophie replied, "No. What? If I am not linked to Hayley, I lose my leverage on you. We had a deal."
Elijah told her, "We are not on the same side, Sophie Deveraux. Our deal no longer stands."
With a sigh, Annabelle said to her, "You really should have thought this through a lot more thoroughly before you tried to trick us all into doing your bidding." While Sophie stared at Annabelle with furrowed eyebrows, Annabelle sped towards her and pinned her against one of the walls before she said, "You know, if it wasn't for you being linked to Hayley right now, I would rip out your heart right here and now for the way you tricked us all the moment my brothers had arrived here in New Orleans. And just in case you try anything else after you and Hayley are unlinked, just know that I won't hesitate to kill you the moment I get the chance to."
All Sophie could do was nod in response as she stared down at the unstable Original.
* * *
While she was dragged towards the first couple rows in the church, Agnes said, "This is outrageous. What's the charge?"
The priest said to her, "Please, Agnes. You know that Marcel runs the vampires in this town. Who do you think runs everything else?" After he opened the cloth and revealed the cursed needle, he said, "I believe this is what you're looking for."
Then both Klaus and Annabelle sped from where they were hiding, with Klaus holding the needle as he said to the older witch, "Hello, Agnes."
Agnes slowly looked over at the priest as she asked, "You made a deal with them?"
While he walked towards Agnes, the priest said to her, "After what you did to Sean, I'd deal with the devil himself just to see you suffer."
As she stood from where she was seated, Agnes told him, "You can't hurt me. The entire witch community will turn against you."
Annabelle replied, "Oh, and what a shame that would be."
While Agnes turned her head and narrowed her eyes at Annabelle, Klaus yelled before he started to walk towards the witch and priest, "Enough! Please. Enough. I don't care about witch politics. I don't care about your ridiculous, little Harvest Ritual. What I care about is this trinket. Undo its curse, or I'll show you things worse than death."
Agnes scoffed before she told him, "Dark objects don't come with an off switch. The curse took root in Sophie. She's linked to your devil child. It's a matter of time."
Annabelle replied, "And you know what else is a matter of time? Your head being separated from the rest of your body."
After he chuckled to himself, Klaus said, "Now, now, little sister. No need to get so nasty. It'll only be a matter of time before this witch's poor coven loses its final Elder, thus rendering their Harvest Ritual moot."
And all Annabelle did in response was chuckle to herself as she stared directly at the older witch.
* * *
From where he was seated on the steps leading up to the podium, Klaus said, "You're a piece of work, Agnes. But guess what." As he got up and started to walk towards her, he said, "I'm quite a piece of work myself. You know, I contemplated leaving bits of you artfully arranged outside your family's tomb. I thought it would leave a fitting message. Annabelle, however, felt it would be better if she were to rip you apart limb by limb and leave every single piece of your body scattered throughout the French Quarter as a warning for any other witches who were to try and harm us."
After he sped towards Agnes and pulled her up out of her seat, he said to her with a hand wrapped around her throat, "Don't touch my family."
It was then that they heard Elijah say from the entrance of the church, "Leave her." After Klaus turned Agnes around and had her pressed against him, Elijah told them, "I gave my word."
Klaus replied, "You tend to give your word at the most inopportune times, brother. We've been doing things your way all day. Come on. Just one little snap, and it's toodle-loo, Agnes. She deserves it."
Elijah said to him, "Niklaus, do not make another move." As he started to walk towards where Klaus and Agnes were standing, Elijah said, "You have asked for my forgiveness. I will grant you that forgiveness, but do not make me break my word."
After a couple seconds of silence, Klaus backed away from Agnes, which got Annabelle to tilt her head and narrow her eyes at Elijah, while Klaus said to him, "My noble brother. How's that for personal growth, eh? Still, it is just like you to spoil my fun."
After he looked back at Agnes, Elijah said, "Oh, not necessarily."
While Annabelle only raised her eyebrows in response, she silently watched as Elijah ripped out the hearts of the others that were seated by Agnes.
As Elijah pulled a handkerchief out of his suit, he said to Agnes, "I swore you would not die by my brother and sister's hands. I said nothing of my own." After he grabbed Agnes's throat and pushed her back a little bit, he said to her, "No one hurts my family and lives."
After he snapped Agnes's neck, he said after he turned around and made his exit out of the church, "No one."