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chapter eight:
accusations
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"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO FIGHT NIGHT!" Marcel yelled from the balcony, causing the vampires to cheer and clap. "And, the first rule of Fight Night is: the vampire left standing at the end of the night is one step closer to the inner circle, and one of these," He held up his hand, "a daylight ring. If you can impress me with a little ultra-violence, you too can enjoy the warmth of the sun on your face. All you got to do is kick a little ass. Here we go! Our first two contenders: Felicia and Otto!"
Felicia won the fight by wrapping her legs around Otto's neck and snapping it.
"Damn, girl! Not bad!" Marcel praised, his smile falling as Belle, Elijah and Klaus came in.
"Good evening! I'd like a word." Klaus announced, right after snapping Felicia's neck.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"It appears that we've interrupted a collection of filthy amateurs! We've come here for the girl. Give it to us, or we kill everyone here . . . starting with you." Elijah threatened.
"You three got a lot of nerve, coming into my home and making demands."
"Your home, is it?"
Belle rolled her eyes at her brother. "Give us the girl and we'll be on our merry way."
"I assume you're talking about Hayley?" Marcel smirked, Belle glared at him. "Yay high, dark hair, bitchy attitude? Who is she, anyway?"
"She's an old friend." Klaus shrugged. "You know how sentimental I am about old friends."
"Well, I ain't got her. And before you start whining, I did pay her a little visit earlier tonight. I was feeling nostalgic, so I took a trip out to the plantation where I used to be a slave. And, imagine my surprise when I realized that the Original family of vampires had taken up residence. Your girl, Hayley, answered the door, we exchanged hellos, that was it. You don't believe me? Look around. Hell, I'll even help you find her. But the question that I'd ask is: if Hayley isn't here, then where is she? "
✶
"NOT THE MOST ATTRACTIVE COMMUNITY, ARE THEY?" Elijah asked them. They sat in the courtyard as they waited for Marcel to bring his witch.
"You do realize they can hear you?"
"You do realize I don't care?"
"You know, Elijah, I liked you better in that box." Marcel walked in with the witch Sabine. "But Klaus, my sire, you I owe the world, and I always show respect to my elders."
Kiss ass. Belle rolled her eyes.
"If your special lady friend is missing, you could benefit from the help of a witch. And, since I control all the witches in this town, I'll grant you one little locator spell. Sabine's the best guide in the Quarter. Need to find someone? I guarantee, she's your girl."
Klaus narrowed his eyes at Marcel, who was leaving. "Where are you going?"
"I hate to cut this short, but the sun's coming up soon. My nightwalkers need to get inside, and I have got a city to run. I leave you to track down your lost sheep."
"Can you find her?" Belle asked Sabine, sighing.
"I can try."
✶
"SHES IN THE BACK COUNTRY." Sabine said after a quick locator spell. "Way up past Houma, deep in the Bayou."
"You can't be any more specific?" Belle questioned with an annoyed tone.
"What's the matter, Belle?" Klaus teased. "You're worried a bit of splashing about in the bog might ruin your expensive shoes?"
"I'm sorry that I actually care about the well being of my things!"
"Children, enough." Elijah sighed, rolling his eyes.
"You're, what, four years older than me? Relax."
Sabine cleared her throat, turning their attention to her. "There are stories of exiled werewolves, encampments. If Hayley went out that far, chances are she went to find them."
"Clearly, she hopes to make the acquaintance of more like herself." Klaus smiled, standing up. "I suppose our company wasn't good enough for her."
✶
"WE SHOULD MOVE TO THE WATER." Belle suggested, being mindful of her steps so she wouldn't mess up her shoes.
"You seem quite determined to find the little wolf." Klaus mused.
"If I'm moving too fast for you, Nik, you're welcome to wait in the car." Belle smiled, sarcastically.
"Ah, so I've touched a nerve? You've begun to admire this girl."
Belle stopped in her tracks, looking at Klaus with narrowed eyes. "I'm helping her because she's pregnant with your child. I'm helping her because she's a damn pregnant woman, not because after knowing her for five minutes I'm suddenly in love with her."
Klaus was about to make another snarky comment, but he began sniffing around.
"What's wrong? Are you beginning to smell your own stench?"
"No, I don't smell." Klaus rolled his eyes. "What do you smell?"
Belle sniffed for a second before her expression went from amused to angry in a second.
"Have you found her scent?" Elijah asked them, they only vamped to an SUV. He followed them.
"No, but I found someone else's." Klaus started going through the blankets in the trunk. "This vehicle reeks of someone I thought I was rid of . . . Tyler Lockwood."
"He smells like a wet dog." Belle grimaced.
"And why would your little hybrid-sidekick from Mystic Falls have any interest in Hayley?" Elijah questioned, ignoring Belle's comments.
"He wants revenge because I went after his girl." Klaus shrugged.
"Why do I suspect this is the least of your offenses?"
"Back when I had the means to sire hybrids, he was my first, Although, I didn't give him much choice in the matter. He was loyal in the beginning, but he grew insubordinate, turned my other hybrids against me. I couldn't have that, so I massacred the lot of them. Tyler ran like a coward before I could finish him off."
"Anything else that you would like to share?"
"He drowned his mother."
"You killed his mother. Wonderful."
"He needed to be taught a lesson!" The older hybrid defended.
"What lesson would you be taught if Tyler harms Hayley or worse?" Belle folded her arms.
"So you do care about her. Well, go on, then. Have at it, sister. Save her. Claim what spoils you can. I've sampled what she has to offer and let me tell you, she is exquisite —"
"Shut up!" Belle exclaimed. "I don't care about her, Nik. Oh, my god! You are actually so insufferable! For the second time, I'm trying to save her from your mistakes because she is pregnant with your child. Go kill Tyler while Elijah and I split up to find her."
She didn't give them any room to argue as she vamped away.
✶
"DON'T GET ALL JUDGEY." Tyler dragged Dwayne's body to the other side of the room. "Dwayne knew what he was getting into. He volunteered!"
"For you to kill him?" Hayley asked, skeptically.
"Dwayne is a werewolf who died with your blood in his system. The same blood you share with your hybrid baby."
A look of realization came across her face. "You're trying to turn him into a hybrid? That's impossible!"
"I've been running with wolf packs all over the country. One of them was tight with a witch. She had nightmare visions about your baby and how Klaus could use its blood to make an army of hybrid slaves."
"I am sick of these witches and their premonitions about my baby. It's just a baby!"
Tyler only shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. That's where Dwayne comes in. You see, he was happy to be the test case. If you haven't noticed, these people don't have much to live for. They'd all welcome the chance to become the superior species. Trouble is, all hybrids are sired to Klaus and Belle. They follow their every move." He picked up a knife. "No way I let that happen."
"How can you be so sure they knows what the baby's blood will do?"
"What do you think? Klaus Mikaelson, killer of men, women and puppies, all of a sudden wants to be a daddy? What makes you think Belle Mikaelson, who has been at Klaus' side for a thousand years, won't help him with creating an army that blindly does whatever they say? Or, they've got an ulterior motive. Hybrids can walk in the sun. Their bite is lethal to vampires. They'll take over New Orleans by the end of the week. And you know what's going to stop them then? Nothing."
Hayley looked at the ground in thought. Her baby was gonna be used as a weapon rather than treated how any baby should be — loved. Belle only helped prevent the magically induced miscarriage to save Klaus' plan. To create hybrids.
Dwayne shot up, freaking out. "You're gonna have to feed on her." Tyler cut Hayley's neck, causing her to wince.
Dwayne rushed over to Hayley and bit into her neck. After a moment, Dwayne stopped and fell to the floor in pain.
✶
BELLE'S HEAD SNAPPED UP AT THE SOUND OF ELIJAH'S SCREAMS.
She vamped over to the sound, being met with Klaus biting into Elijah's neck and Hayley yelling in horror.
"What the hell is going on?"
Klaus wiped his mouth, "it seems the wolf has gotten into Elijah's head that my intentions for my child are impure. He thinks I'll use the baby as a weapon to create hybrids. And he thinks you're in on it."
Belle looked at Elijah with raised eyebrows. "You actually believe that?" She looked between the two. "How would I be 'in on it' if I didn't know the baby's blood could create vampires? How could Klaus? Elijah, you have literally been searching for Klaus' redemption for centuries, and the when he is this close, you take the word of a wolf you've know for a second."
She looked to Hayley, feeling hurt. Belle thought that Hayley would become a part of the family, not trying to turn them against each other.
Belle shook her head at Hayley, scoffing. This was the woman she was bonded to?
"You two enjoy each other's company. You'll have much to bond over, once the hallucinations and dementia set in."Klaus smirked. "Consider that bite to be my parting gift to you both."
Klaus walked away, but Belle looked at them one last time. "You two are unbelievable."
✶
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE LEAVING." Belle frowned as she saw Rebekah in the mansion.
"We all know this family can barely function without me." Rebekah smiled before frowning. "Where are Elijah and Hayley?"
"I left them in the Bayou." Klaus shrugged.
"Why?"
"Elijah and I had a bit of a row." He laughed bitterly. "Hayley's conspired to turn him against me. You know our brother was never one to resist a pretty face! So, one thing led to another, and I bit him, left them both stranded in the swamp."
Rebekah looked between the two furiously. "Daggering, biting, deserting. Does your wickedness ever end? Is there no line to which you'll stop following him, Belle?"
Belle thought for a moment. "Probably not."
"My 'wickedness is self-preservation!" Klaus excused. "And I wouldn't have to go to such lengths were I not presented on all sides with ignorance and treachery! Now that Elijah's abandoned me, I'll be needing you in my plot against Marcel. Don't expect to be leaving town anytime soon."
"Why should I help you, after what you did to Elijah?"
Klaus looked slightly hurt. "You're my family. Besides, who better to spy on Marcel than the girl he so clearly loves? You can tell me all his secrets. Like, how did he find us here? Huh, any idea about that, little sister?"
"How should I know why Marcel does what he does?" Rebekah questioned, tilting her head.
"We're not stupid, Rebekah." Belle chimed in. "We know all about those private chats with him."
"Just tell us what secrets he's confided to you. Is he plotting against us? Against me?"
"My poor brother, so paranoid." Rebekah pouted. "Marcel knows nothing. He's not plotting against you, he simply thinks you're in a quarrel in need of making up. "
"Perhaps we will. After all, you know I'm capable of forgiving those who disappoint me. As soon as they've seen the error of their ways . . . and suffered for them. You'd do well to remember that. "
"You never let me forget."
authors note, i never actually understood why elijah trusted hayley's word more than the brother he knew for a whole millennium