CHAPTER LX
❝ Oh, yes, he will. ❞
"Werewolves are banned in the Quarter!" Klaus yelled at them, dumping yet another body into the pile of Rebekah's vampire kills. "I had a plan and your little stroll put it all in peril!"
"Leave him!" he shouted at Rebekah who made to stalk towards a vampire of the pile who had begun groaning. "You've done enough, don't you think? Leaving a trail of bodies like a road map to our door?"
"I was called here to keep her safe." Rebekah retorted back. "I did exactly that. Otherwise you would have found these girls in pieces. And don't give that crap about having a plan. You've had all the time in the world to execute a plan, and no one's seen you do a damn thing! Elijah stood by you. He wanted this family to be whole again. But now he's disappeared. And obviously it's you who have done something. I've searched the entire house, so tell me, Nik, where did you hide our brother?"
"Oh, I don't know," Klaus began, voice dripping with sarcasm, "maybe he's having a nice little autumn nap upstairs."
"Oh, of course," she scoffed, "here Elijah did everything in the world to keep your child safe and you dagger him. Tell me, what have you even done other than drink New Orleans dry with Marcel?"
"That's quite enough, Rebekah." Lucy interjected sharply, her eyes flickering to the anger ridden face of Niklaus. "Don't speak of things you know not of."
"Oh, no, wait Lucy, let me spell it out for her." Klaus began, voice icy. "So, listen, Rebekah, to all that I have done other than drink New Orleans dry with Marcel."
"From the day I arrived, Marcel hasn't trusted me. From day one, he's had his vampires ingest toxic vervain which, as you know, little sister, protects them from my mind compulsion." he continued. "I needed a spy, someone on the inside with me who Marcel would never suspect. So, I created a day zero and got there first. Marcel had just lost six vampires to your little murder spree, and he needed new recruits. So, I made the new one mine, before he'd had even a drop of vervain. But we all know the real way to a man is through his heart so I compel the bartender he has a thing for and make sure she tells me everything he tells her of his empire."
He grabbed a vampire from the pile, one who was apparently alive.
"And this one- I'm gonna drain him of vervain, compel him to believe that his mates found religion and moved to Utah. So that he could explain to Marcel why he lost three more vampires tonight."
He began dragging him inside, making others follow suit.
"Does anyone have any more questions? No? Good. Because I do have a question." he turned angrily towards the trio. "What happened out there?"
"It's my fault." Hayley said shakily, the guilt gnawing at her. "They were there for me. Someone came to know I'm a wolf."
"You have been in New Orleans for so long now!" he shouted, eyes ablaze with anger as he made to stalk towards her. "How come you don't even know that the French Quarter is banned for wolves?!"
"Stop it." Vaishali gritted, stepping in front of her. "We haven't been here for long. But we've been to the Quarter plenty of times. I have zero idea how those vampires came to know today only that Hayley's a wolf. And stop fussing, they were there just for Hayley. And they didn't even sense me, let alone your wolf child."
"I brought you here so that Lucy may be safe." he gritted, looking down at her intimidately. "And you're just putting her life at peril."
"Nik, Nik," Lucy said hurriedly, gently pulling him away from them, her hand on his shoulder, "it's okay. I'm okay. Rebekah was there. And besides these two are wolves, one bite and they were done for."
"We're meeting Marcel tomorrow." he said firmly, whole body still high on anger. "So that he may know who's off limits for his teensy dogs."
"Yes, yes, we're meeting him tomorrow only, alright?" Lucy nodded, turning his face towards her, making him meet her eyes as the anger slowly faded away. "But, where is Elijah?"
"I. . ." he sighed, casting his eyes to Rebekah, "I gave him to Marcel."
"What?!" Rebekah looked at him with betrayed eyes.
"Marcel was nervous. It's bad enough one original returned to town, but two? His crew was getting antsy. He wanted Elijah gone, so. . ." he took a deep breath. "I gave him a piece offering."
"You bartered our brother?"
"I have a plan." he defended, looking at his sister. "Gain Marcel's trust, dismantle his empire, honour Elijah's wish that the baby be born. I am executing that plan the only way I know how. If you don't like it, there's the door. See if I care."
"Come on, Nik, alright for today," Lucy interrupted, grabbing him by the shoulders, "let's go to sleep."
"Okay," he nodded, albeit still looking at his sister, "but your ice cream first."
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Lucy's look for the chapter ≈
"So, what's the plan?" Lucy asked, pouring some milk from its carton.
"Well, that depends on what plan you mean, love" Niklaus said amusedly, leaning against the granite counter. "My plan for global domination or Rebekah's plan to find love in this cruel, cruel world."
Rebekah smiled dryly at him before chucking a knife in his direction, which he caught with ease, smug as ever, dropping it into the sink as the wound healed immediately.
"She means the plan to get Elijah back." Rebekah rolled her eyes, sauntering to the refrigerator to pull out an apple, her heels clicking with each step. "The good brother, you know. The one you stabbed in the back before handing him to your mortal enemy, Nik."
"In the front if we're being specific, sister." Klaus smirked, moving away from the countertop to pull a box of corn flakes from a high cabinet.
"Of course." she rolled her eyes as Lucy bit back a laugh at Niklaus' words. "Tell her the plan then."
"Well, firstly, Marcel is not my mortal enemy, he's my friend- albeit one who is unaware that I'm trying to sabotage his hold over the supernatural community of the French Quarter- but a friend nonetheless," Klaus shrugged casually as he poured the flakes into Lucy's bowl of milk. "And secondly, I daggered Elijah in order to gain Marcel's trust."
"If I had known he would place my brother in the hands of a particularly nasty teenage witch, I certainly would've weighed my options a bit differently. And thirdly," he gestured towards Rebekah, "Sister, please."
"And thirdly, the plan, as you have demanded, is for Niklaus to simply ask Marcel for Elijah back."
"That's obviously not the whole plan." Lucy snorted.
"Exactly! Klaus may be a miserable excuse for a sibling, but there is none more diabolical." Rebekah smiled saracstically.
"That's just the Plan A, love." he shrugged, feeding her the first spoon of her breakfast. "There's always a Plan B."
"And what's that?" she mumbled through a mouthful.
"War." he smirked as she took the bowl from him.
"Gorgeous." Lucy snorted, sauntering to the couch overlooking the open kitchen.
"Now, love, I'll be back in half an hour," Nik began as Rebekah rolled her eyes at his words, "we'll go meet Marcel then."
"Mhmhm." she nodded, focused on the eating.
"And, where must your werewolf friends be?"
"I don't know." Lucy shrugged. "They went out early morning."
"Well, then Rebekah stay with Lucy, don't let her get out of your sight."
"Sure." she sighed.
"Am I clear?" he asked.
"Obviously, Nik." Rebekah shrugged. "I'm the baby's aunt after all."
"Good." he nodded. "Deal with that witch when I'm back."
"You guys really aren't going to tell me the plan, aren't you?" Lucy scoffed.
"I'll tell you the details in the car." he smiled, leaning down to kiss her forehead before leaving.
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Lucy's look for the chapter ≈
"I need to use the washroom, Nik." Lucy groaned, lightly banging her head against the table of the restaurant they were cozied in.
"We have just reached, Lucy." Niklaus said amusedly.
"Blame your little bean, darling."
"Okay, okay." he chuckled, standing up. "Marcel may wait."
"Oh, yes, he will." she scoffed, a little amusement laced in her words though, as she hurried her way to the washroom with Niklaus following behind.
She went inside while Nikalus waited by the entrance of the passway whose end divided into the two wahsrooms : men and women's.
On returning she found Niklaus talking on the phone, his back turned towards her, and his voice drowned by the music playing in the background.
She smiled to herself, stepping into the hallway and pulling out her phone to check the time as suddenly someone leaving the men's washroom accidentally knocked into her, the phone tumbling to the carpeted floor.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," he muttered a quick apology, bending down to pick it up.
"Here, miss-" he stopped midway as his eyes finally landed on her face, narrowing with his next words.
"You? How are you still alive? And what are you doing here?"
"Excuse me?" Lucy gave him an untrusting look, taking her phone back from him. "Do I know you?"
"Get out of here." he gritted, his hand lashing out to grab a hold of her arm in a painful grip. "Marcel won't like it to know that you're here."
"Keep your hands off me." she spitted out in anger, other hand slapping him hard as he recoiled back in shock.
"You witch-" he made to lunge at her before his legs bucked, a pained noise leaving his lips as Lucy kicked him right at the groin.
"Don't you worry about Marcel. I'm going to meet him soon." she looked down at him coldly.
"You, bitch." he snarled, vamp-speeding to her, hand wrapping around her neck as her body slammed into the concrete wall.
Lucy waved her hands around desperately to get ahold of anything as her fingers touched a showcasing vase set onto a table and she thrashed it into his head.
His grip loosed and suddenly he was thrown off her, landing a few feet away, body making harsh contact with the carpeted floor.
Lucy coughed, holding her neck as Klaus vamp sped to the man lying on the floor, seething in anger.
"How dare you!" he gritted, grabbing him by the neck and pulling him up. "How dare you even lay a hand upon her!"
The said vampire thrashed under his chokehold, but somehow his face still showed no sign of fear. Just anger.
"If you dare-" he slammed him into the wall, fuming, "-if you dare even breathe in her direction, you hear me? Even breathe in her direction, let alone lay a hand on her, I am going to fucking kill you and send your body in little gift boxes to Marcel."
"Do you understand me?" Klaus spat in anger, gripping his face harshly to make him have direct eye contact. "Do you?"
"Klaus!" a startled voice interrupted as Marcel emerged out of the washroom. "Leave Thierry."
Marcel, who was yet to notice Lucy, patted Klaus' arm when he didn't budge. "Come on, mate, you know the drill. Thierry's my guy, inner circle. Klaus is my old friend and sire. He's our guest. Alright? Let him go now, Klaus."
Klaus withdrew his hand, snarling, "Teach your dog some manners, then."
"What happened, Klaus?" Marcel sighed.
"Apologize to her. Now." he snarled at Thierry.
"It's alright, Nik." Lucy spoke up, turning everyone's attention to her. "It was just a small misunderstanding. Although, I might accept my own car back as an apology."
She bent down to pick up a car key lying on the floor on their confused gazes. "This fell out of your pocket. And it appears to be something of mine."
"It's yours only, love." Klaus smiled sarcastically at Thierry, as Lucy looked straight at Marcel, a faux smile appearing onto her face.
"You-" Marcel began, his words slow and cautious,"you two know each other?"
"Of course we do." Lucy nodded, the faux smile never leaving her face.
"That's who I wanted you to meet, Marcel," Niklaus motioned towards her. "That's my girlfriend, Lucy Wright."
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A/n :
Hehe, i mean ofc she'll know Marcel already! She did the research on her father's death guyss.
And, listen, listen, i just had an evil idea which I'm sharing so that I won't use it.
What if Hayley is preggo too? And she told no one abt it and she killed it when she took wolfsbane previous chapter.
Or maybe I think I can kind of use this when I have no idea left what to do, for like a new twist or some angst between them coz then it will be that Klaus never told her that he slept with Hayley in Falls and then he even brings her to live with them!
Dramaaa. . .
Until then,
Ripahhhhhhhhhh.
Word Count : 2055