The Originals: Equilibrium Part 2

The Originals: Equilibrium Part 2 (1-15)

Chapter 1:

Wake up!

The sudden scream of noise causing a woman to swiftly open her eyes. The woman sat up in her bed, patting down the space next to her expecting to find her wife laying beside her, but she was gone. Confused, she looked around the bedroom only to be greeted by an eerie silence. The room dark and desolate, like life itself had been sucked out of it. A putrid smell resonating under the bed. She needed light, but was afraid of what other horrors lay waiting for her. But with no choice, she used her witch magic to light a nearby candle, the lime green flame dancing through the ebony entrapment. Determined to find her wife, she threw the covers off of her and jumped out the bed. The floorboards underneath crackling as soon as her feet made contact with the floor. Her heart pulsating through her chest, she tip-toed over to the lit candle, her only defense against the suffocating darkness. Her footsteps stalked by loud creaks, she reached out to the candle located on top of an old oak drawer. Grabbing a tight hold of the candle holder that was harboring her salvation, she pulled it closer to her.

But as she did, she was confronted by the spine-chilling shriek of a baby. Upon hearing the infants heart wrenching cries, her heart throbbed, her maternal instincts telling her to investigate. Leaving the safety of the bedroom, the woman slowly made her way down the winding staircase, blindly following the ongoing shrills. Reaching the bottom, she recongised the familiarity of the dull grey paint staining the walls, she was in her brothers house, in his lounge. But something was off, she may have been in her brothers house but it was completely unfurnished, with only cobwebs for decoration. The room dark and lifeless. Not done with her investigation she looked around finding nothing. That's when she heard a harrowing cry emanating behind her. Instantly turning around to the source of the noise, she saw a moses basket ominously placed in the center of the lounge, which she knew wasn't there before. Hesitant to approach, it took another gut-wrenching scream from the confines of the moses basket, to convince her to abandon all her preconceptions and approach the basket. Growing closer, she began to feel her body tremble overtaken by pure anxiety. Reaching the basket, she gulped as she slowly peered over the edge, not sure what monstrosity awaited her. But to her surprise, there was nothing. It was empty. Struck with confusion, she stepped backwards, her back instantly making contact with something cold behind her. He heart racing she quickly turned around seeing her reflection staring back at her.

But what she saw looking back at her terrified her to her very core. The mirror reflecting reality, her whole body was saturated in crimson blood, her dark blue eyes the only relief from the sheet of red. Her usually long blonde hair dyed to match the rest of her body. Letting out a huge scream she panickly clawed at her face trying to erase the blood, but to no avail. Then she felt a pressure in her right hand, like she was hiding something. Glancing down at her hand, she saw that she was holding a dagger. The dagger itself beamed with familiarity it was fully black, with a shiny topaz gem at the hilt, but she couldn't quite place why. But as she examined it further, the reason hit her like a sack of bricks, it was a demon dagger. This extremely rare weapon was used to kill otherwise immortal demons and it was the very same weapon she had used to kill Serena Peterson's unborn child. Panic setting in, she instantly threw the dagger to the ground, with it sliding unnaturally to the back wall. Her gaze following the dagger, her attention became drawn to movement behind the layers of grey paint. She watched as the molecules of paint separated, fizzling away like acid. Being replaced by a thick red substance that dribbled down the side of wall. This spreading across the whole surface, until the seemingly random splotches began to combine together to form a word.

'MURDERER'

She was frozen with fear. Her heart breaking through her chest, her whole body heavy with guilt. They knew. Whoever was doing this knew what she did and was out for blood. As numbness began to blossom through her whole body, she was interrupted by a large sizzling sound resonating behind her. Drawn to it she turned around, seeing the grey paint viciously melting off the walls. Blood beginning to take its place, cascading down from the ceiling to the floor, until the whole wall was oozing with the crimson liquid. Then came the sequel of agonizing shrills from the murdered infant ringing through her head, amplified for maximum punishment. She grabbed hold of her head trying to stop the infernal noise from infecting her mind. Instead, the helpless cries only grew louder bringing her to the brink of Insanity. Her brain about to explode she screamed, "STOP IT! STOP IT!".

Pure silence.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips. Only to be followed by a thunderous crack ravaging from behind the wall. Not being able to hold the weight the wall collapsed and a flood of blood cascaded into the room. The woman stood there helplessly letting out a scream, before being completely absorbed by the tsunami of blood.

....

"Ahh!!" Freya Mikaelson jolted awake sitting up in her bed. She was heavily panting and short of breath, her chest tight squeezing her heart. A lamp turned on next to her, revealing that Freya's screams had also woken up her wife, Keelin. "Another nightmare?" she guessed, wrapping her arms around Freya in an effort to comfort her. These vivid nightmares being a frequent occurrence for the past six years, that Keelin had grown well accustomed to. Freya regretfully nodded, "I'm sorry I woke you" kissing her wife softly on the cheek. Keelin kissed her back passionately on the lips "don't worry about it. I just wish I could do something more to help. I hate seeing you upset". Freya returned a warm smile "you've got enough on your plate already. I don't want to burden you with all my problems". Keelin rubbed Freya's thigh "your problems are my problems. You're my wife". They shared a loving kiss, before settling down back into bed as Keelin turned out the lights falling asleep almost instantly. Leaving Freya alone amongst the shadows, to think about who could know her secret.

Little did she know, the source of her torment was a twelve-year-old boy, who had no idea he was even doing it.

Chapter 2:

The morning sun trickled through the busy household, filling the house with light as another morning began for the family of five. The past 6 years had flown by with the children growing up, too fast for Elijah's liking.

"Are you ready to leave?" Elijah's voice bellowed throughout the house, his children eluding him. Elijah had planned to take the family to a café in town for breakfast, as they did every Friday. "Dad, have you seen my tie?' Nathan asked his father coming into the room looking for the black tie that matched his suit. Elijah walked over to the dining room table and picked up a tie and handed it to his son, "You left it in the Kitchen again last night". Nathan now 12, was tall for his age towering over her younger brothers. He was slowly but surely growing into a young man, even had the suit to prove it. Over the years he had proven to be naturally gifted at everything he tried, spell casting, potions, even mastering the violin all came easily to him. But as a true gentleman would, he had remained humble, striving to help his family at every available opportunity. Following behind Nathan was Sarah who looking around the house for something, "Dad-" she was cut off by Elijah picking up the hair brush on the table and placing it in her hands. Gratefully accepting the brush, she ran it through her thick, luscious blonde hair. She too had changed so much in the 6 years they had been in hiding. A few centimeters shorter than Nathan, she was starting to blossom into a young woman, gaining in all the right places. But that didn't stop her from besting her brothers in hand-to-hand combat. Leaving Elijah to often wonder what happened to his little girl.

Inheriting their family loyalty from their father, both Nathan and Sarah were extremely protective of their younger brothers. As such, they had matured much faster than other children their age, always trying to better themselves whether it be in magic or combat. It was the one regret Elijah had leaving the pack with them so young. Bringing himself back to reality, Elijah turned to the children "You both need to take better care of your belongings". The two children nodded at their father, they were always misplacing their things around the house. After the brief moan, he returned to a smile, wondering where the rest of the family was "Where are your brothers?". The family were supposed to be going out for family day but he had yet to see the boys. With Nathan and Sarah shrugging their shoulders, Elijah maneuvered his way to the staircase "Boys, are you ready!?". Instantly hearing a thunderous rumble from the rooms upstairs. Within seconds a gust of wind blew through the house carrying Link along with it, stopping right in front of his father "Dad, I'm here!". A bit on the smaller side, Link was a perfect mix of both his parents. His brown eyes were an exact copy of his fathers, whilst his dusty blond hair and free spirit mirrored his mother. But Link didn't let his small size get the better him, like both his father and brother, he was musically gifted, his chosen instrument being the cello. Looking down at his son, Elijah noticed the crocked collar on his leather jacket, a smile on face as leaned down and fixed the collar in to place "I can see that. Now where's your brother?". Link smiled "he's upstairs painting". Elijah sighed, "Of course. Would you mind getting him for me?" He asked Link who speed up upstairs to retrieve his big brother. Elijah or Hurricane, as Elijah liked to call him, loved to paint and often spent hours in the attic, as he had been plagued by nightmares for months. Link then rushed down the stairs with his brother in hand. His red hair and face covered in paint, "Elijah, what were you painting to get this messy?" going into father mode noticing the spatter of paint all over the boys face. Hurricane looked up at his father with his mesmerizing ocean blue eyes, "I got carried away" he told him. Elijah sighed as he retrieved a wet cloth cleaning the paint off Hurricanes face, before gently pulling his head towards him to get a look at the paint staining his hair. Surprised to find the paint was already dry "The paint in your hair is already dry, lets go get some breakfast then you can have a bath when we get home". The boys face lit up as the five of them got their things together and headed to the café. Nathan reminding his father to wear his disguise pendant that kept the illusion that Elijah was blond with blue eyes rather then his dark hair and brown eyes. This making Nathan feel like him and Hurricane were adopted as they were the only ones in the family who weren't blond. After Elijah put the pendant around his neck they headed outside.

The children immediately rushing to the car, Nathan eagerly waiting by the drivers seat as he pleaded "can I drive dad?". Elijah instantly shut him down, with a swift "No. You're still not old enough to drive" with a depressed Nathan moving to the front passenger seat instead. Before they went, Elijah made sure the children were all buckled up safely in the car, once satisfied they drove off into town, for a morning of family bonding.

....

They entered a cafe, where they had come every Friday since they first arrived in the city. It was one way for the children to experience some form of normality outside the confines of the house, allowing them to socially interact with people outside their own family. As regulars, the waiting staff had grown accustomed to the families visits, treating them like members of their own family. The café itself was small and cutely decorated but it was perfect for them to go out and stretch their legs. Seeing their arrival one of the waitresses recognised them and lead them to a booth that was directly opposite a wall mounted mirror, the family sliding into the red leather booth. "How are my favorite customers today?" their waitress, Sandra, asked in a southern accent she was in her early 30's with curly brown hair and brown eyes. "Were fine thank you" Elijah smiled back, the two almost six-year-olds turned towards her, "It's our birthday soon!". "Oh is it, sugar cube?" she told the boys, seemingly genuinely interested. Elijah rolled his eyes, "Son, your birthdays are still months away". "Never mind, darling. Those two months will fly by" she winked at the boys before returning at the task at hand, "What would you like to order?". The family made an order of four waffles and syrup with Sarah getting a small ice cream so she didn't feel left out. Sandra then left to fill their and the five of them began to talk amongst themselves.

"For my birthday I would like a bike!" Hurricane proclaimed full of excitement, whilst Link remained deep in thought not sure what he wanted. Shortly afterwards, their southern bell waitress Sandra, bought their order to the booth and with the family delving in straight away. Nathan was about to start eating when he suddenly felt that someone was watching them, he looked around trying to be inconspicuous as possible, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. Until, he saw a woman take a picture of the mirror from one of the tables and looking into the mirror he noticed why, his fathers reflection.

Chapter 3: May revise last paragraph

Nathan looked at his fathers reflection in the mirror which reflected his true appearance, his black hair and brown eyes on show for everyone to see. Nathan then saw the woman going to leave and Nathan knew if he was going to protect his family, he needed that phone. Not tearing his eyes away from his target, Nathan slid out the booth "I'm just going to the bathroom". Instead using an illusion spell that his uncle James had taught him he snuck outside to confront the woman.

He caught her just outside the café with her putting her Frizzy hair up in a ponytail her phone between her legs. He snuck up behind her, "What are you planning to do with the pictures you took?" this caused the woman to jump dropping the phone on the floor. Without a moment's hesitation, Nathan quickly leant forward picking the phone up from the floor as the woman fiercely demanded "Kid, give me my phone!". "But you didn't answer my question. What are you doing taking pictures of my family?" Nathan roared at her, the woman looking extremely confused "Nothing". Nathan wasn't convinced, as he clicked his fingers, making the woman fall to the floor writhing in pain, "I don't like liars". The woman wanting the pain to stop screamed "I was going to show the vampires in New Orleans that I had found the missing original". Nathan tutted, "We'll I can't have that. That would ruin everything" He smiled using his magic to magically compel the woman to unlock her phone and delete the pictures she took of his father. As soon as she did, he felt a numbness shoot through his body as, his vision become hazy, like something was taking over him as he began to be engulfed by a blanket of white until he was completely taken by it, his world fading into darkness as he fell victim to unconscious.

When he woke up, he was sitting on the pavement, alone, having no recollection of what he was doing outside the café. He felt blood trickling down his nose and when he got out his handkerchief, he noticed the blood was black not red. An overwhelming fatigue took over every ounce of his body as he peered inside the café seeing his family tucked away in a booth. He then staggered back inside fighting against his need to sleep, sitting next to his sister, but as soon as he did his head dropped to the table and he fell asleep.

This confused everyone at the table. Nathan being a demon, meant sleep had been a stranger to him, until now. Curiosity taking over her, Sarah poked Nathan's cheek, with him immediately swatting her away. Elijah could think of only one reason for his son's sudden need for sleep, after experiencing it himself six years ago, Nathan's horns were starting to come in. But he couldn't help but wonder if Nathan was to young to be getting his horns, as demons usually got their horns during the later stages of puberty. He then recalled what Serena had told him 'That as Nathan was a powerful type of demon called a death touch, his horns might come in a few years early to help stabilise his magic'. "Dad, what about Nathans waffles?" Link's voice bringing him back to the present. Seeing their waitress approaching, Elijah politely asked if she had a take away box, with her speeding off to retrieve one for him. Meanwhile Hurricane and Link had just finished their waffles, the sugary sensation satisfying their sweet tooth's. "How was it?" Elijah asked already knowing the answer "Yummy!" they smiled. After a few minutes the waitress returned with a takeaway box, "there you go, call me if you want anything else" before she left them alone once more. Elijah then placed Nathan waffles in the box before delivering the news of "Your uncle's coming round to see you tomorrow" remembering that Ash had called him earlier in the week about coming over. The children lit up with excitement, "Uncle Ash or Uncle George?" "Or is it Uncle James?" the two boys talked over each other. "Uncle Ash" Elijah clarified to them, Ash was Elijah's millennial doppelganger. "Yes! I love Uncle Ash!" Link screamed causing Nathan to startle awake, "Uncle Ash is here..." he trailed off his face planting back into the table. The three remaining children laughing at their brother's inability to stay awake. After they had finished eating, they went to leave the waitress giving them the bill but Elijah used his vampire abilities compelling the waitress not to pay, instead giving her three 24 carat gold coins that were gathering dust in his pocket. They tried to wake up Nathan to leave, "Come on son, you'll never hear the end of it If I have to carry you home" Elijah told him with Nathan's younger brothers smirking at him. "five more minutes...." He whispered with Elijah rolling his eyes, "Now" he told him firmly. Upon hearing this Nathan opened his eyes and lifted his head up as the five stook this as the time to go. They slowly made their way outside, Nathan staggering in between his father and siblings. Elijah hadn't noticed that waitress had written her number on the bill before heading home.

The five of them eventually made it home where Nathan went straight upstairs to bed. Elijah knew he would have to ask him what happened when he woke up in a few hours, "Elijah, upstairs we need to get that paint out of your hair". "Aww... dad we were going to practise our compelling" Link whined. With him receiving a disapproving look from his father, "what have I told you about compelling your brother?". Link sighed looking guiltily at the floor, "not to do it". Elijah smiled softly at his son, "why don't you call your grandfather instead?" he suggested with both Link and Sarah perking up, full of energy "Can we?" Elijah nodded passing Sarah his phone before heading up upstairs to run Hurricane's bath.

Chapter 4:

Thousands of miles away in New Orleans, Marcel was at his home with a legion of vampires around him taking shelter from Klaus's wrath. Since Elijah's disappearance almost six years ago Klaus had become unpredictable, even more than before. His temper a short fuse, that when lit would kill in an instant and never burn back out leading to bloody massacres from which no one could escape from alive. A majority of vampires in the city had taken refuge at Marcel's knowing that he was the only one who could really protect them from the original's wrath. It had gotten so bad that Marcel had even sent out search parties to try and find the missing Mikaelson, but with no blood line to follow and the possibility of him being anywhere around the world they had always unsuccessful. What was clear from the floods of vampires appearing at his doorstep was that's something needed to be done about it, but Rebecca had convinced him not to do anything as she was trying to help him. The vampires were all tightly clustered in the main hall when a woman burst through the doors, alerting the others of her arrival "I have found the missing original!" she bellowed her voice echoing around the room where they began to chat amongst themselves. The whispers emanating in a huge wave of sound filling all the space around them.

"SILENCE!" Marcel called emerging from upstairs, the room falling deathly quiet as he made his decent down the staircase. He approached the woman who had made the claim, "Where is he?" he asked her firmly as everyone stared at the woman. She got out her phone from her pocket and when she went to unlock it her hand began to shake uncontrollably, and she began to feel a sharp pain in her head almost like someone was drilling into her skull. The excruciating pain expanding all over her head, she noticed black blood cascading down her cheeks and nose. She began to cry in pain, but she remained frozen her brain succumbing to the virus of pain. Then there was relief. The woman letting out a small smile before her head viciously exploded, with what was left of her body dropping to the floor leaving everyone in the room covered in blood and tiny pieces of brain. The whole room paralysed with shock on what they just witnessed. Marcel drenched in blood, picked up her phone that too was covered in Blood, someone didn't want Elijah Mikaelson to be found, the phone would hopefully give them the answers they needed to find out why. But as he wiped the blood from the screen, he realised it wasn't going to be that easy, the phone had a passcode "DAMN IT!".

Chapter 5:

Back at the house, Nathan had fully recovered, but still groggy from whatever happened earlier in town. He sat in the kitchen finally being able to enjoy his waffles after his father had so kindly took them home for him. He drizzled golden syrup all over the waffles his mouth salivating as he did. He then took a knife cutting a piece of the syrup flooded waffles and placed it in his mouth creating a sugar explosion, he was in heaven. Elijah came into the Kitchen after giving the others a task to do in the other room so he could talk to Nathan about what happened. Walking over to Nathan, who was devouring his waffles, he asked "Son, what happened?". Nathan froze, as he took a deep breath depositing the fork on the plate before turning to his father, "I don't know. The last thing I remember is us arriving at the café and you ordering". Elijah sighed, "I think your horns might be starting to come through, your mother did say you might get them early" Elijah could see he had mixed feelings about it. He went to hug him but he as he did, he saw Nathans eyes turn form a deep brown to pure white as he screamed in agony, clawing at his head. The plants in a vase next to him decaying as a wave of death spread around the house followed by an icy chill. "Dad! The plants are dying again!" Link shouted from the living room. Elijah paid no notice of Links comment, paternal instincts taking over he grabbed a hold of Nathan wrapping his arms around him in an attempt to comfort him. Nathan was hyperventilating, tears rolling down his face not being able to control the pain of his magic surge.

After a agonising minutes, for both father and son, the pain slowly began to ease, his breathing slowly returning to normal with his eyes following suit. After Nathan had calmed down Elijah released him for the hug and using his own magic gave life back to the flowers in the vase. The other three children rushed in the kitchen feeling that the danger was over and to see what it was. "Dad, what happened?" Link asked seeing Nathan slumped over next to him. Elijah turned towards the others "Nathan's starting to get his horns, that was a magic surge" the two boys looked back at him perplexed, but Sarah knew that magic surges were not to be taken lightly. Nathan turned around in the chair, "I'm fine now" he assured his family, with them not buying it at all. They looked around at the plethora of destruction that Nathan's magic surge had caused, knowing they had a lot of cleaning to do. In a joint effort, the family quickly tided up the house for their uncle's arrival tomorrow before Elijah made them all diner

Night soon fell over the house louring the children to bed. Although Nathan and Sarah had grown out of sleep Elijah liked them to try before joining him downstairs with him believing sleep was a gift and it made sure that Link and Hurricane didn't think their older siblings got any special treatment. While Elijah waited for Nathan and Sarah, he tried to contact Serena. First, he dialled her phone number but she didn't answer. He tried a few more times becoming increasingly frustrated that she wasn't answering his calls. He tried Alex and James but received the same response. He then went into the living room where he used his magic to turn on fireplace the flames burning a lime green. He tried to contact them this way "come on Serena, I need your help" he mumbled to himself. He watched as the green flames danced as he waited for a response, but instead he heard a blood curdling scream that resonated from the children's bedroom upstairs, "DAD!!" Link's voice shrilled. Elijah rushed upstairs to Link and Hurricane's room seeing Nathan already comforting Hurricane on the bed Hurricane leaning into Nathan's chest with Nathans arm around him. "What happened, son?" Elijah asked wondering on what had scared him. Hurricane then left the comfort of his brothers and ran and hugged his father, "I had a nightmare, that a horrible old man was trying to take Link, you and Nathan away somewhere" he cried. Elijah embraced him stroking his fiery red hair, "I would never let that happen" he smiled down at him, "We told him that" his siblings comfirmed. But what worried him was that Hurricane had been plagued by similar nightmares for the last few weeks and the boy had proven to have a sixth sense what he dreamed or drew in his sketch pad usually became true. This evident from Sarah's birthday where he dreamed of her getting double edged sword that split into two different daggers when took apart, which was exactly what Elijah had made for her. He knew he had a big decision to make his family where no longer safe in the house, these nightmares weren't just nightmares they were premonitions. The night dragging on, the family headed downstairs where Elijah made them hot coco and they played poker with chocolate chip cookies as the stakes. Hurricane was soon fast asleep using his father as a pillow, snoring loudly as he made himself comfortable. The four remaining players continued to battle it out for the cookies like their life depending on it, each trying to out bluff the other. As the early morning crept up on them, Elijah could hear a howl in the distance, Ash was almost there.

Ash being incredibly mindful of their secret, and tried not to be seen leaving the pack in a car whenever he wanted to visit his niece and nephews, instead choosing to shift into his wolf form and make the journey to them overnight chasing away any suspicion that he knew where they were hiding. Elijah hearing him, placed his cards face down on the table as he scooped the sleeping Hurricane up placing him gently on the couch. He then dashed off upstairs to get Ash a towel and change of clothes. The children taking the opportunity to take a sneak peak at their fathers cards. Elijah then rushed back downstairs just in time to hear a loud whimpering at the front door, Ash wanting to be let in. Elijah then opened the door allowing the huge brown wolf to walk in, where he followed Elijah into the bathroom. A few minutes later Ash emerged in the living room fully clothed having transformed back due to his ring, "Did you miss me?" the children returning gleaming smiles "Yes!" they chuckled running up to their uncle squeezing him tightly. "Where's little Hurricane?" Ash asked not seeing him with everyone looking towards the couch, he hadn't even stirred. "You're all grown soo much since I last saw you" "But uncle Ash, you saw us three weeks ago" Link informed his uncle confused. "I know but you're growing too fast!" he said messing up his hair before asking "How are the fangs Link, come through yet?". Link shook his head disappointedly, "Don't worry, you'll get them soon enough" he winked at him cheering his nephew up. "Ash, can I speak to you in the kitchen for a moment? It's important" Elijah interrupted, intending to confide in his false twin about his dire situation. Ash smiled back completely unaware of what awaited him, beaming with excitement over the true purpose of his visit "okay, I also have some news". The doppelgangers began to head to the kitchen but was stopped by Sarah "Dad what about the game?" to which Elijah returned a warm smile "I fold". Sarah couldn't hide her delight upon hearing those words, the cookies were hers. The two men then continued into the kitchen ready to exchange news.

Once in the kitchen, Elijah shut the door behind them making sure their conversation was completely private, the future of his family at stake. He then turned to Ash who was still full of smiles, not yet aware of the gravity of the situation "what is it?". Taking a deep breath Elijah filled him in "Nathan's horns are beginning to come through. I tried contacting Serena, but was unsuccessful. I just don't know what to do". Upon hearing this Ash's smile dissolved, being replaced with a look of worry, knowing how serious this was "How is he taking it?". A small sigh escaping his lips Elijah replied "He's been waiting for his horns for as long as he can remember. But I fear that his magic surges will draw unwanted attention. Especially after Elijah's nightmares". Ash nodded in understanding, knowing his fiery haired nephew seemed to be some sort of oracle, his visions being premonitions of the near future "the nightmare of you, Nathan and Link being kidnapped? You think that's going to happen?". Elijah replied with a firm nod, "he never been wrong before. I just don't know what to do to keep my family safe". There was a brief moment of silence with the adopted brothers deep in thought about what do, when a huge grin formulated on Ash's faces "I do. You could come home to the pack". His idea intrigued Elijah, New Orleans had an incredibly strong magic output due to it's numerous supernatural communities, perfect for masking Nathan's demon magic. But returning to the city came with its own risks, his siblings still residing in the city meant that they would inevitably meet and with almost six years in hiding Elijah wasn't willing to take that risk. "We can't go back. My siblings are there" he confessed to Ash who reassured him "You'll have the pack to protect you and you wouldn't have to worry about Nathan's magic". Ash really wanted his family to be whole again, the pack had felt so empty without them, which was one of the reasons he visited them so often. "I just don't know if I can" Elijah admitted defeat, his mind pondering the impossible decision of returning to home. "Why don't you have a think about it?" Ash suggested seeing his twin lost on what to do. A warm smile on his face Elijah nodded, before remembering Ash said he had some new to share as well "I got carried away, what did you want to tell me?". But Ash shrugged it off like it was nothing "ohh... it was nothing important". A frown formed on Elijah's face "are you sure?" as Ash nodded "It can wait. The kids are more important". Not completely convinced but not wanting to push him on the matter, Elijah continued to think about the decision at hand and more potently what was best for his family.

After spending the rest of the night pondering the decision, Elijah ultimately decided that to hide Nathan's magic surges and protect his family from whatever else was coming for them, they would have to return home to the pack in New Orleans. The magic presence there would mask Nathans so it would be the safest option for their family. Although he wasn't too happy knowing that his own family would also be there, but deep down he knew he had to take that risk. The two doppelganger twins headed back into the living room where the children had just finished the poker game and Sarah had distributed her win amongst her brothers. Hurricane was still fast asleep on the sofa next to Nathan. Seeing the adults enter the room once more the children turned towards them seeing that something was bothering them, "what's wrong dad?" feeling the awkwardness in the room. Elijah took a deep breath before answering them, he had no idea what their reactions would be, "Were moving back home. With Nathans horns coming through it's the safest place for us". He watched the children sitting on the couch speechless their mouths wide open with shock, but this slowly evaporated into gleaming smiles, "when are we leaving?" Nathan asked, "tomorrow" Elijah replied softly. Link turned excitedly towards his father, "Were going to meet the rest of pack!" as he bolted up from where he was sitting and started running around with his vampire speed. Elijah grabbed him using his strength the momentum pulling the young boy back, "Link, your brothers still asleep". Link looked back at the couch remembering Hurricane was still fast asleep and surprisingly hadn't stirred. Elijah let go of Link after he calmed down, "I want you all to get ready for tomorrow". The children then got up from their seats and quietly but excitedly went to get what they wanted to take with them. Ash went to help Nathan and Sarah whilst, Elijah took the sleeping hurricane to bed and quietly helped the boys gather clothes and everything they needed for the journey. With little Hurricane sleeping throughout the whole thing. He made sure to pack outfits for them, their favorite toys, electrical devices, paint supplies and anything that had any sentimental value to them. Elijah and Link had made swift work of it, whilst they still heard the others thundering across the floor as Nathan was struggling to choose between his many spell books and everything else that he held dear. Elijah then placed the bags outside and went to help out the others, Link following behind him.

After eventually using magic to give infinite space to the bags, everyone had packed their bags with all of their belonging, seemingly only leaving the piano behind as the family of five headed to the car to begin their long journey home. Elijah helped Link and Hurricane put their bags into the car. Nathan was waiting by the driver's seat door, a gleaming smile on his face. Elijah knew exactly what he wanted, "Your still too young to drive, son" he told him, Nathan looked disappointed his face dropping, "But, I can drive". Elijah smiled and shook his head, "Just because you can drive, doesn't mean I'll let you.". Nathan sighed and mopped his way to the other side opening the door to the passenger seat. Making sure that all the children were ready and buckled in they set off on their journey home. The children were buzzing with excitement at going home and finally physically meeting their family for the first time. Whilst the children were full of excitement Elijah was conflicted about returning to New Orleans. On one hand he was happy to be seeing the pack once again, he had missed all of them and Ash had told him on plenty of occasions that they had missed them too. But, he was worried about keeping his family safe knowing that his siblings would be there as well, he didn't know how long he could keep up this façade around his own family and he really didn't want to find out.

Chapter 6:

After a long tiresome drive, the five finally began to approach the familiar surroundings of New Orleans as they made their way through the city and to the pack grounds. Link and Hurricane Elijah were in awe, their heads darting around trying not to miss a thing as they took in the sights. Nathan and Sarah had huge smiles on their faces glad to be home. They then left the rustic city turning the corner to the pack which was about 5 minutes away. Where they then came up to the road and following it all the way home.

As they pulled up outside the pack house, they extended their heads like meerkats, taking in the beauty of their new home. With the addition of a few extra houses, the pack ground was exsactly how they remembered it. The pack itself was vibrating with life, the pack beginning to swamp around the car before they had even had a chance to get out, in an attempt to welcome them home. When they finally managed to get out of the car, the children were bombarded with members of the pack squeezing them tightly and pinching their cheeks. Especially, Link and Hurricane who kept being reminded that they were babies the last time the pack saw them. "Settle down!" Alpha Peter echoed throughout the chaos with the pack slowly backing away from the five of them. Once everyone had calmed down Alpha Peter looking noticeably older, wrinkles plastered on his face, walked up to Elijah and the children "Welcome home, son" and hugged him tightly trying to make up for the last 6 years apart. He then moved onto the children, "Come here, my grandchildren" he smiled as the four of them slowly walked up to him where they each got a loving hug, "Look, how big you've all got".

Elijah was watching this interaction not noticing a small presence coming up behind him, "Are you my dad?" a little girls voice asked. Elijah followed where the voice came from and saw a little girl a little bit younger than Link, she had white hair and piercing red eyes. "No. he's my dad" Link shut her down, havening escaped his grandfathers hugs, both children glaring at one another. "Athena honey, what are you doing to your cousin?" Claire appeared amongst the crowd looking the same as Elijah remembered, her white hair and red eyes being hard to forget. Thea looked at her mother awkwardly not answering her question, Link taking an instant disliking to her "She asked if my dad is her dad. Which he's not, he's my dad". Thea looked at him her nose scrunched, "Thea, He's not your father. He's your uncle Raven" Claire told her, she seemed disappointed, but this was short lived as she shrugged her shoulders and hugged her uncle, "Hello, Uncle Raven! I'm Athena. But everyone calls me Thea or Ghost,". Elijah smiled down at her but before they could introduce themselves any further Link snapped "I'm Link Azrael Peterson and that's MY family" pointing behind him to the rest of his siblings who were chatting to Alpha Peter. Just before Elijah could stop the two children from bickering, Claire snatched him away leaving the children in the care of their grandfather and Uncle Ash.

Claire took him to a secluded area of the pack where they stopped, "Is she Klaus's?" Elijah asked joining the dots. Claire let out a smile and nodded, "I would have told you sooner, but it didn't feel right telling you on the phone". "Does Klaus know?" Elijah questioned her, "No and I want to keep it that way. After that incident with Freya he never spoke to me again. Then about 2 weeks after you left with the kids, I found out I was 3 months pregnant with Thea" she sighed a small smile on her face, "I haven't told her she's a Mikaelson, she's safer not knowing. Especially, with what happened with Link and what you told me about what your family went through with Hope" Elijah sighed, "I understand, I haven't told Link either". With the pair on the same page, they headed back to the center of the pack where there was tension building between Link and Thea, both children looking like they wanted to rip out each other's hearts. Seeing his father return, Link went up to him holding his hand and they then went into the boot of the car retrieving their bags with Link not taking his eyes off Thea whilst doing so. Sensing the tension Sarah went up to Thea her hand extended, "Hello, I'm Sarah your big sister" Thea laughed, "I know who you are silly, mum has told me all about you!" as she completely ignored the handshake and squeezed Sarah tightly, "Mum says you're a hybrid just like me". Sarah embraced the unsuspected hug, loving being back at home. "You don't hug me like that Thea" Katrina appeared from behind them, Katrina now 19, was a lot taller and bustier than Sarah remembered. Sarah went to hug her sister but stopped when a random man came up from behind her, kissing Katrina on the lips. Sarah looked menacingly at her sister's mystery boyfriend and it seemed Thea didn't like him either as she also had an evil glare on her face. "Who's this babe?" he asked looking down at Sarah, "I'm Sarah, Katrina's sister" she spat back looking at his twig like body wanting to snap it into two. "Sarah this is my boyfriend, Tucker" Katrina introduced them. Causing Sarah to chuckle, "Tucker? Are you a dog?". Katrina's boyfriend seemed offended by this, "says the wolf" "hybrid, actually" Sarah corrected him with a huge smile on her face, the tension between the pair continuing to grow until Hurricane came over to get Sarah. His red hair shimmering in the sun as he walked over, "Sarah could you help me unpack please?". Katrina sensed something familiar about him, her demeanor changing into one of aggression as she sensed the son she had rejected standing in front of her, the son she had chosen to forget "GET AWAY FROM ME!" her reaction scaring Hurricane in place. Tucker leaped to Katrina's defense "you heard her kid, shew". Hurricane didn't know what to do, he had just come over to get Sarah to help him and now he was being shouted at. Tucker stepped forward unimpressed with Hurricanes inability to follow instructions, "are you deaf? I said shew!".

Sarah bit her tongue feeling her fangs beginning to seep through her gums, wanting to say something but instead she took a deep breath fighting against the instinct to rip his face off. Instead, she grabbed hold of Hurricane and Thea's hands and dragged them away to inside the pack house where the others were waiting for them. "Can you let me go now please?" Thea asked her sister, Sarah who had been too engrossed in her anger hadn't let them go straight away when they arrived at the pack house, but upon hearing Thea's plea she let them go. "I don't like him either" Thea confessed before darting off to find her mother leaving Sarah and Hurricane, Sarah then hugged her little brother/nephew making sure he was okay after what happened. Once this was confirmed they went upstairs to meet with the others.

Nathan was in one room almost finished setting up his room when he saw Sarah, "Your room is next to mine" he told her as he appeared at the door but he could see something was wrong with her, "Are you okay?". Sarah turned towards him, "Not really, Katrina's boyfriends an arsehole!" "Sarah, Language" Elijah called from one of the bedrooms across the hall, "trust me dad, you'll want to kill him when you meet him!" Sarah shouted back. "She's right" a deep voice called from behind her. Not recognizing the voice, she turned around and saw a boy around 16 years old with breathtaking blue eyes and dark brown hair, "Caleb?". Caleb smiled back, "It's omega Caleb now" winking at her. "Omega? You joined the pack ranks? You really have grown" Sarah smiled remembering the three of them all playing games together when they first escaped the pits, "Yep, my 16th birthday was in the spring so I was old enough to join the ranks. But by thr looks of it you will be joining me soon enough, you're not little pipsqueaks anymore" he laughed before going back into the boys room helping them set out their bedroom as they didn't want separate rooms. Nathan then came out behind her and lead her to her room next door. Shortly afterwards, Elijah knocked on the door to ask if they were okay. Sarah shaking her head, Elijah came into the room shutting the door behind him sitting on the bed as Sarah told him what Katrina had done, "She screamed at him and got her boyfriend to shew him away. I should have killed him right then and there" she vented to her father. Elijah sighed, "Just ignore him sweetheart. We only just got back, and I've already heard some of the pack questioning Elijah's parentage". Nathan and Sarah looked outraged that their brothers red hair seemed to already be the talk of the pack but was more annoyed that Katrina had outright rejected him upon seeing him, again. They heard a knock on the door and Alpha Peter entered, huge smile on his face with Link and Hurricane running in darting past him, sitting next to their father on the bed. A huge smile on his face as he announced, "Come outside, we have a surprise for you!".

.........

The five of them heading back outside they were greeted by a huge "welcome home!" from the entire pack. The pack itself was decorated with brightly colored banners and balloons that Elijah knew weren't there when they first arrived. Looking at the plethora of gleaming faces, Elijah couldn't help but smile "you didn't have to do this". Alpha Peter stepped forward "yes, we did. The pack is all together again, we had to celebrate!" the pack roared agreeing with their Alpha. Elijah found himself overwhelmed by such a welcomed reception, it felt good to be home after all these years.

The pack had calmed down from their previous antics, taking it in turns to welcome Elijah and the children back home. Soon he was welcomed by George, Claire's twin brother, who had more wrinkles on his forehead than Elijah remembered. He was accompanied by a tall but quite muscular Asian man, and by the looks on their faces Elijah could tell they were completely smitten with one another. "Elijah, this is my husband Clay" George proudly informed him as he grabbed a tight hold of his husband's hand. "So, you're Ash's 1000-year-old twin?" Clay joked. His comment forcing Elijah to smile as he stuck out his hand "Nice to meet you. It's good to finally be able to put a face to the name I've been hearing so much about". Clay returned a smile as he shook Elijah's hand "Ash told you about us?". With a small chuckle Elijah replied "Ash tells me everything, except what I actually need to know". In truth, Elijah couldn't care less about Georges sexual orientation, he was just glad that he had found someone who made him happy. What he did care about however, was the marriage of Alpha Peter and his aunt Dahlia which Ash had neglected to mention until a year ago, which even then was two years after they initially got married. Suddenly His mind clicked 'where was she?'. As he began to frantically look around for his aunt, Alpha Peter joined the trio almost like he could read his mind "Dahlia's not here son. She's at a spa weekend with Ester before she goes on her trip around the world". Elijah looked back at him puzzled, seeing his expression Peter shrugged "don't ask. I didn't". But out of pure curiosity Elijah couldn't resist asking him one question "why did you have to marry her?" where the Alpha simply smiled and replied "Because I love her".

As the adults continued to talk, a bored Link went to see what his brothers were doing but was interrupted by Athena racing up to him, almost knocking him over. "Your dead!" she proclaimed right in Link's face, causing him to scowl back at her "no I'm not". His reaction confusing Thea, "but your names on the thingy with all the other dead pack members. Your dead". Link's frustration began to grow, he had no idea what she was talking about "I'm not dead!" he shouted as pure anger pulsated through his body. Athena only being five herself didn't register Link's blatant frustration, "come on, I'll show you". Link begrudgingly followed Thea, with her leading him to the center of the pack, stopping by a huge vibrant tree that was almost as tall as the sky. Looking up, Link noticed the tree was heavily decorated with what looked like old metal collars hanging from each of its many branches. Remembering what his father had told him, he knew that it was a public demonstration of the pack's freedom from the Pits. He just didn't expect there to be soo many, "I wonder what one was dads?". Meanwhile, Thea was paying more attention to the floor, scanning the brick wall that was guarding the tree until she found what she was looking for. "Over here!" she called to Link, bringing him back to reality he rushed over to her ready to prove that he wasn't dead. When he got there, she pointed down to the brick wall which was imbedded with a small golden plaque "that's you isn't it?". Link nervously looked down at the plaque taking his time to read it carefully:

Azrael Peterson

An angel who touched many hearts before his final assent

Upon reading the plaque, Link was stung with confusion. That was his name, But not his name. His mother had told him once on a call, how she originally wanted to call him Azrael, but his father decided against it making it his middle name instead. "This doesn't make any sense. I'm not dead" he protested, beginning to feel a little overwhelmed by the whole situation. "That sounds like you are dead to me" Thea commented as Link began to feel angry tears rolling down his face as he exploded "I'M NOT DEAD! MY DAD CAN PROVE IT!". Link then rushed back to find his father leaving a trail of death in his wake. Spotting him outside the pack house, talking to his Aunt Claire, Uncle George and George's husband Clay he sped over to them, his face full of tears.

"What's wrong, son?" Elijah asked him becoming alarmed. Link sniffled before replying as tears dribbled down his face "dad, am I dead?". This left Elijah perplexed, having no idea where this was coming from "no you're not dead, why do you ask?". Link wiped the tears from his face beginning to calm down with the confirmation that he was alive "Thea showed me a metal plate by that big tree that has my name on it". Elijah frowned over at the tree not sure what to make of this information, "show me". Grabbing his father's hand Link pulled him to towards the tree until they reunited with Athena, where Link proceeded to point down at the plaque, "there it is dad". Puzzled, Elijah crouched down intensely studying the plaque "Azrael Peterson..." he began to read out loud stopping midway, with pure confusion taking hold of his mind. He had no idea why this was here, his son was still very much alive. "So that is Link then?" Thea questioned having still not received confirmation from her uncle. With a thoughtful sigh, Elijah turned to his niece "It's supposed to be. I just don't why it's here". Just then Alpha Peter emerged from behind them full of smiles as he teased "so this is were the three you snuck off to". They all nodded, "what is this?" Elijah asked him immediately getting to the point, where Peter glanced down at the plaque "that's Link's memorial plaque. We set it up after you left so that Link's death would appear more realistic to outsiders, just like you wanted". Upon hearing this Elijah was stunned with shock "you made a fake memorial plaque for Link?". With a simple nod the Alpha replied "Yes, we even held a funeral for him. The witches were talking about it for weeks". This left Elijah speechless, the pack really had gone above and beyond to conserve their secret, with him finally managing to get out a "thank you". A warm smile appearing on Alpha Peters face "Anything for my grandchildren" as he pulled both Link and Athena in for a hug, much to their displeasure. Once Alpha Peter freed the children, Elijah turned to Link "Now that we have confirmed that your not dead, why don't we rejoin the party. I'm sure your brothers will be looking for you". With that, the four of them went to join the party once more, with Link and Athena continuing their fight on the way back "I told you, I wasn't dead!" with Athena retaliating by sticking her tongue out at him. "Link, where are your manners?" Elijah asked, immediately putting a stop to the cousins bickering. Thea then saw her mother and uncles and rushed off leaving Elijah and Link behind, Link continuing to scowl at her from a distance until he was distracted by his own family.

Soon enough the blissful day quickly melted away into the tranquility of night, the stars beginning to sparkle in the sky above them. Giving Elijah a moment of much needed peace from overbearingness of the pack. For Elijah, being back felt so surreal. It felt like only yesterday that he and the children had left this world behind, yet so much had changed since. The marriage of Alpha Peter and his aunt Dahlia had certainly come as a big surprise. As he looked around at the sea of smiling faces, he couldn't escape the feeling that something was missing. But he became distracted when he heard a sudden yawn echo from behind him. Drawn to the source of the sound he turned around to find Hurricane and Link, sitting on the porch of the pack house leaning on one another half asleep. He couldn't help but let out a smile "come on boys, lets get you to bed". "But dad I'm a vampire, I'm not tired" Link protested before letting out a huge yawn. Although Link was a vampire, his young age meant that he could not yet escape the need to sleep, Elijah had learnt that the hard way. Elijah then effortlessly scooped up the boys holding them in his arms, with them immediately falling asleep. He then took them upstairs placing them in their beds, where he was greeted by large echoing snores from Hurricane.

With the boys fast asleep in their beds, Elijah finally realised what he was missing, his family. He may have returned to the city, but he wasn't truly home without his siblings by his side. But the only thing that mattered to him now was his children, their safety being his one and only priority. The night drawing to a close, Elijah headed back outside meeting Sarah and Nathan on the porch just in time to see the sun rise. They watched in awe, as the sky became illuminated in golden, reddish hues slowly breaking through the cover of night to welcome a new dawn.

"It's good to be back"

Chapter 7

The next day...

The family rose the next morning exhausted from the night of partying, welcoming them back home until the early hours of the morning. As a result, Alpha Peter and Ash decided to take them for breakfast at a café in town so the family could catch up over a delicious breakfast. To Elijah's surprise all but one of the children were ready to go, Hurricane was still fast asleep with Link having to physically push his big brother out of bed for him to wake up. Once he was fully awake and Elijah had managed to flatten his sons unruly red hair, they headed to the café for some well deserved breakfast. Elijah making sure he had his necklace of disguise around his neck hiding his appearance. The seven of them made it to the café which was smartly decorated and saw the vast array of desserts that they had on display. Elijah liking the look of the warm chocolate fudge cake. They then entered, sitting in a large booth in the corner of the café where somehow Elijah had gotten wedged between his family with the boys sitting to the right of him and Nathan and Sarah to his left with Peter and Ash at the end. Shortly after they sat down a waitress came over taking their order and gave the four children coloring pencils and sheets. Unlike his younger brothers Nathan scornfully looked at the sheet feeling it was beneath him, but seeing Sarah coloring persuaded him to give it a go. Elijah loved watching the children's creativeness shine through, especially Nathan and Sarah who he had to often remind that they were still children themselves.

Across the café sitting in a window seat was Dahlia and Ester who hadn't seen the group enter. The sisters were talking, enjoying each company when Ester saw a little blonde boy who bore a striking resemblance to Nicklaus when he was that age, except for his eyes. Ester tried not to think much of it but as time passed, she couldn't get past the similarities between the two as she began to see more and more. Dahlia seeing her sister distracted asked, "What is it Ester?" wanting them to go back to spending quality time together before Ester went on her long awaited trip around the world. "That boy-" she began as she tried to slyly point him out to Dahlia. Dahlia followed her gaze and saw the table she was gesturing to but there were two young boys sitting next to one another at the table, Dahlia leaned in toward Ester "the blond or the red head?". Ester gave her a disapproving look and huffed "The blond one". Dahlia took a quick glance back at the table seeing nothing out of the ordinary turning back to her sister, "What about him?". Ester then bent in closer to her older sister, "He looks exactly like Nicklaus when he was his age, but with Elijah's eyes". Dahlia frowned back at her "so?" she was struggling to find the relevance of the current conversation. Ester smiled at her, "It can't just be a coincidence". Dahlia sighed, shaking her head, "Ester, I know you miss Eli-" she was cut off by her sister who wasn't paying attention as she had watched Alpha Peters head appear from the side of the booth as the waitress presented them with desserts "Look Peters here". The focus of the sisters then shifted to Dahlia's husband who was sitting at the same table with the boy in question. "I didn't see him come in" Dahlia mumbled under her breath as they watched the table eat desserts. Studying the rest of the table Dahlia realised that she had no idea who the others at the table were so the pair decided to get up and introduce themselves.

The warm chocolate sauce melted in his mouth as he took the first delicious bite of his warm chocolate fudge cake, hitting his sweet tooth. Everyone except for Ash and Sarah were enjoying there breakfasts with Link and Nathan having ice cream sundaes and the wolves at the table having pancakes drenched in golden syrup. When Hurricane saw an elderly looking blonde woman staring at Link, finishing his mouthful he nudged his little brother, "that lady is looking at you funny". Link looked up from his ice-cream seeing two ladies approaching the table who he didn't recongise "Dad..." the two boys said nervously in sync. The adults turned their attention to the approaching threat, ready to fight who ever was coming round the corner as the booth impaired their vision. The tension settled when Dahlia and Ester reached the table, "Honey, I didn't know you were here" Alpha Peter said getting up from his seat and kissing Dahlia on the cheek. Dahlia smiled "me and Ester were just having breakfast after our girls day yesterday, we didn't even see you come in." She then turned her attention to Elijah and the children at the table, "Who are you?". Elijah and Ash looked at each other not sure how they were going to wriggle out of this vicarious situation. Luckily, Elijah didn't have to speak as Alpha Peter took over, "This is my youngest son, Raven. And these beauties are my grandchildren: Sarah, Nathan, Elijah and Link they just got back last night." Gesturing to each grandchild when he announced them. Dahlia looked at the five strangers in front of her, unsure why her husband hadn't told her about his other son and grandchildren until this very moment, "Why have you never mentioned this before?". Elijah looked nervously at Peter, his palms starting to sweat as he nervously awaited his answer. "They left just before we met" he kept the explanation short and sweet. "I visited them every month, to keep them in the loop" Ash added trying to make there sudden appearance less suspicious. Elijah could see that Dahlia was still not completely convinced, but was interrupted by Ester, "You should come over to my sons house for dinner tonight, your technically cousins now". Elijah's face dropped in fear, he didn't want to be thrown in the deep end having to deal with his family straight away and to his horror Alpha Peter replied, "that sounds nice". Before Elijah could protest Ester had already walked away from the table her old flip phone in hand and was on the phone with Klaus. Whilst Dahlia sat down next to Peter at the table where an awkward silence lingered, Elijah trying not to say anything eating what was left of his ice cream. "Dad, I need to go to the bathroom" Hurricane told his father pulling at his sleeve to get his attention. Seizing the opportunity Elijah took both Elijah and Link to the bathroom so Link wouldn't slip up about anything. When they returned a few minuets later Ester and Dahlia were just leaving, Dahlia kissing Alpha Peter on the lips, "I just need to run some errands with Ester, but I'll be back home as soon as we've finished". Peter smiled, "Okay honey" and Dahlia turned towards the others at the table, "It was lovely meeting you all, see you tonight" and then followed Ester outside as they limply waved them goodbye.

Once the coast was clear Elijah turned to Peter, "I can't go to the dinner". Peter looked at him in disbelief, "Why not?" this caused Elijah to frown, "What do you mean? You know why". Peter sighed heavily, "Son, it will be easier to get it out the way sooner rather than later. You don't want them to suspect anything, do you?". Elijah shook his head, "can't we just say one of the children is sick?" with the four children scowling at their father. "No. You can't" Alpha Peter told him. Seeing the waitress walk past, Peter politely asked for the bill before turning back to Elijah who was sat in silence lost in thought, "don't worry, I know what to do". After they paid the bill they started to head home. The seven of them arriving back at the pack just after noon, they began to get ready for the dinner in a few hours that Elijah was dreading going to. Every ounce of his body wanted to not go, to protect his identity and in turn his family. But Alpha Peter was right, putting off introductions would arouse suspicion amongst his family. He had no choice but to go, he just hoped that he could put on a decent enough act. He wasn't the only one having reservations about the dinner, Nathan was sat curled up on the couch an open spell book in hand but Elijah could tell he wasn't reading it. Instead, he was lost deep in thought, Elijah could only guess what about. He then went over to him sitting next to him on the couch. Sensing his presence Nathan awoke from his day dream looking up at his father, "She's going to be there, isn't she?" his voice riddled with sadness. "Yes, she is" Elijah replied knowing that he meant Freya. Elijah recalled the endless nightmares that Nathan had when they first got to their new home, reliving the constant nightmare of seeing Freya stabbing his mother and the endless blood pouring from her body when he ran over to help her. Elijah knew this would be difficult, they all had their grievances with his family, Freya especially. Seeing Nathan begin to tear up Elijah reached over hugging his son, with Nathan leaning into him embracing the warm comfort. Elijah took a deep breath, "I know you don't want to see her, neither do I. But you know I would never put you or your siblings in harms way". Nathan came up from the hug, "I know, but I don't know if I can sit there gritting my teeth after everything that she's done to our family" he admitted to his father. Elijah felt the same way, the feeling of her betrayal gnawing away at him. He took of locket from around his neck, passing it to Nathan, He examined it recognising it as his family pendant which he had given his father when escaping from the Pits, "Dad, I gave this to you" trying to give it back. "I know, but I want you to wear it to the diner. Every time you feel angry or nervous, I want you to look at the pendant and remember how far you've come" he smiled at Nathan taking the necklace and putting it around Nathans neck. "Do we have to go? Can't we say Elijah got chicken pox or something?" Nathan asked causing Elijah to let out a small chuckle, "I already asked your grandfather the same question he said it would be too suspicious. But apparently, he has a plan?" this made Nathan perplexed "what plan?" to which Elijah shrugged his shoulders, "your guess is as good as mine, son" the pair shared a smile. Then Sarah came into the room wearing a mint green flowy dress, "How do I look?" she asked twirling around. "You look beautiful, as always Sarah. But you don't have to wear that if you don't want to" Elijah told her knowing how much she despised wearing dresses. "But your always saying that first impressions are everything" she reminded him. "Trust me sweetheart, it's not worth it. If you would be more comfortable wearing something else, wear something else" he told her and pleased with his response she rushed upstairs to change, "Sarah! Could you tell your brothers to come down stairs please" Elijah shouted before turning his attention back to Nathan, "hopefully we won't be their for too long, otherwise we might have to fake an illness".

Then they heard a thundering coming from upstairs which quickly made its way down the staircase. From the thunderous sound appeared Link who had used his vampire speed to beat Hurricane down the stairs, with him joining them shortly afterwards. Both boys were ready in smart-casual attire, with matching jeans and a short-sleeved t-shirt, looking like they were twins, "we're ready dad!" Hurricane exclaimed with Link firmly nodding. Shortly afterwards Sarah came back down the stairs, similarly to her younger brothers wearing jeans and a purple V-neck long sleeved t-shirt, Elijah could tell she was already much happier. "So, were all ready. We just need to put our coats on" Elijah told himself, the children all looking at one another and nodding. Then they heard the echoing of Alpha Peters voice from the hallway, "Raven, are you and the kids ready? We have to go soon!" and a few moments later he appeared in the living room seeing them all gathered and ready to go, "Were ready, just need to put our coats on" Elijah relayed and Peter smiled gently, "I promise I'll try and get you out of there as soon as possible, I know its not ideal. But, if you are going to stay here permanently this needs to work" The children's eyes lit up, "Like forever? We don't have to go back home after Nathans horns come out?" Link asked turning towards his father. This put Elijah in a tough position, he hadn't had a chance to think about what they were going to do after Nathan was done with his transformation, "we'll see son". Excitement poured on Links face about the prospect of staying with the pack permanently, "Okay kids, lets get your coats on and lets start heading over there" the Alpha commanded. The four children rushing up, going into the hallway to grab their coats. "Why did you say that? I don't want to give them the false hope that we may be staying here" Elijah confronted him. "Son, if I can help it your not leaving the city again. The pack stays together, always" Peter told him. Elijah then went to make sure the children had their coats on and retrieve his own. In the hallway Ash was already on top of it helping Link pull up his coat zip that had gotten stuck. When he successfully freed Links coat zipper, he looked up seeing Elijah in the hallway and past him a burgundy leather jacket. Elijah recognising straight away as his initiation jacket, the color and the white pack emblem giving it away. He then looked back at Ash who coincidently was wearing his own initiation jacket, "Guess what day it is?" Ash asked his doppelganger twin accompanied by a huge grin on his face. Elijah looked confused, not sure where this was going, "It's doppelganger Wednesday!" Ash exclaimed excitedly. Elijah smiled at Ash's enthusiasm but shut him down with a firm "No". Ash looked at him with pleading eyes, "Please....". Elijah tried to protest but was interrupted by Peter, "You know he wont stop until you agree to wear the jacket". Knowing he was right and with time slowly running out, Elijah reluctantly agreed to wear the jacket. He didn't believe his siblings had seen him in the jacket before, he just hoped that they didn't find the connection.

Chapter 8

With the seven of them outside Elijah made sure everyone was wrapped up to combat the cold autumn chill and that he was wearing his necklace which disguised him, which he was. Before they set of he quickly turned to the children, "Listen closely, when we get there I want you all on your best behavior. If there are any photographs or paintings that look like me and your uncle do not draw any attention to it.-" he then turned to Link and Elijah "and no play fighting". His two youngest sons looking offended that he had pointed them out, "Why did you look at us when you said that?". Elijah let out a warm smile, "because you two are trouble" laughing before reaching out his hand scuffing up Links dusty blond hair. "No were not!" Hurricane protested as Link battled with his father to stop the unruly destruction of his hair. Elijah let go of Link, turning towards his red headed counterpart his eyebrows raised, "Like the time you two thought it would be a good idea to set the rug alight?" the two boys looked guiltily down at the floor. Elijah let out a small smile, "promise me, no play fighting" where an encore of "we promise" followed behind. "Are you ready? We're going to be late!" Alpha Peter bellowed from the edge of the pack and the five of them quickly hurried over meeting up with him and Ash as they made their way to Klaus' for the one thing Elijah had been dreading, seeing his family again. As the seven of them began to make their way to the house this feeling of dread began to overwhelm him, the safety of his children hanging in the balance. Everything depending on whether he could convince his family that he was a completely different person, which in no way would be easy. After 20 minutes they arrived outside the house where an eerie silence lingered. The front of the house was overgrown with foliage intruding all around the house. Vines scoured the walls looking like they were consuming the house. "Dad, I have a bad feeling about this" Link mumbled reaching out for his father's hand. Elijah took Links hand and pulled him in close to him. Alpha Peter then took the lead, going ahead of them ringing the doorbell. They waited for a good 10 seconds before Dahlia opened the door, she looked flustered, her cheeks red, her pulse racing like she had been in an argument. "Oh honey, you're here" she welcomed them with a huge smile on her face she then led them through to the dinning room, which was candle lit, only adding to the eerie atmosphere. In front of them where his siblings and his mother all looking him and the children over. There was an awkward silence between them with Klaus looking at Elijah extremely thoroughly. Breaking the silence Dahlia spoke "Everyone, you already know Peter and Ash-" the Mikaelson siblings nodded, she then gestured to the others, "This is Peters' youngest son, Raven and his children: Sarah, Nathan, Elijah and Link". Link waved cutely at them with Rebecca waving back.

Nathan scowled as soon as he saw Freya, as he refused to tear his eyes away from his little brother's attempted murderer. As he watched her sitting on the armchair his ears began to buzz, cancelling out all the chaos around him. A phantom heartbeat raging through his chest as his muscles tightened. Before becoming paralyzed by a sudden numbness shooting through his body. As his mind became overflowed with the horrific memories of that day. Reliving the nightmare of watching his mother bleed out right in front of him, thinking she was going to die. Her blood staining his hands as he tried to stop it. His little brother being born so prematurely that he needed to be attached to huge machines. It was all because of her.

Then he felt something wrap around him, bringing his mind back to the present. Snapping out of his traumatic trance he looked up and found that his father had wrapped his arm around his shoulder, discretely consoling him. With the added comfort of his father Nathan managed to calm himself down, choosing instead to focus on concealing his family's secret identity.

Not long afterwards, dinner was ready and they all sat down in their allocated seats, Elijah putting Nathan next to him at the opposite end of the table from Freya. Although they were away from Freya he had unintentionally sat opposite Kol and his mother was sat next to him at the head of the table, he knew he would need to be careful. The rest of the children were all sat along next to him being sandwiched in between the adults the order being: Elijah, Nathan, Link, Hurricane, Sarah, Ash and Alpha Peter. "Raven? Isn't that a girl's name?" Klaus spat at him. Elijah gulped having realised he hadn't even worked on a different voice, "We thought he was a still born, he wasn't breathing. So, when he eventually took his first breath me and his mother decided to call his Raven. So, we would never forget our sons brush with death" Peter lied causing Elijah to awkwardly smiled, knowing that Peter had planned that story in advance. "Does your father always speak for you?" Klaus rudely snapped at Elijah. The whole room fell silent, and the children turned towards their father itching with excitement on what he was going to say next. Elijah tried his best to do a different variation of Ash's voice, "No, he doesn't". His two youngest sons laughed at their fathers voice, with Elijah shooting then both an evil glare from across the table where they both looked guiltily at the floor. "Nathan, was it? What's with the suit?" Rebecca asked Nathan. Elijah once again was filled with dread about what he was going to say, "Control" he snapped back, the whole room falling silent. Elijah bit his lip, "Okay son, why don't you and the others go play in another room?" he prompted trying to avoid any more complex questions. He watched as the four of them reluctantly left and go next door taking some stress of his shoulders. "So, why have we never heard of you before?" Kol questioned staring at him feeling something was oddly familiar about him, Elijah took a deep breath to quickly think of something "There's not much to talk about". With Alpha Peter's adding the verbal assault of "He's a stalemate. Never transformed". This caused Klaus to burst out laughing "A stalemate wolf?! That is hilarious!". Elijah rolled his eyes but Peter seemed to play into it "you should have seen him try that first night, it was absolutely priceless. The closest he got to transforming were the fangs but believe it or not his howl was actually quite decent". This made the rest of Elijah's siblings chuckle and even though he knew it was a fabricated story Elijah couldn't help feeling embarrassed. Dahlia saw this on his face turning to her husband "Enough hon, you're embarrassing the poor boy", Peter looked over at Elijah seeing he had taken it to far. The laughter simmering down, Rebecca out of blue asked "If you don't me asking, where is their mother?". Elijah gulped hearing Peter's elevated heartbeat breaking through his chest, it was on question he hadn't planned for. It was now Elijah's turn to improv, knowing what ever he said next was crucial to keeping his family safe. Taking a deep breath he prepared the story of his life "When we escaped the Pits, she wanted to go see the world. But someone had to look after the children, my two youngest were newborns at the time and needed constant attention. But I didn't want to keep her from her dream. So, she left and I stayed home with the children". He watched his siblings faces fall like a sack of bricks, his story had done the trick. He could see Rebecca was itching to ask him more questions about his wife but was interrupted by her phone ringing in her pocket. She then turned to Klaus "It's Marcel, I have to take this" him giving her his seal of approval, she got up from the chair and went into another room where a candle lit was a luminous green flame was waiting for her. Back at the table Dahlia tried to keep the conversation going turning to her remaining niece and nephews "Ash is getting married. Isn't that great news!". Elijah almost choking, "You didn't tell me you were getting married" he told his doppelganger who looked glared back at him, mumbling through his teeth "I did try to tell you but you know... things got in the way.". This passive aggressive exchange awkwardly continued for another five minuets before they were interrupted by a huge CRASH!

10 minutes prior

Nathan leaned in closer to the lime green flames of the candle listening to Rebecca's conversation in the other room. His brothers bored with their older brother's antics continued to play in a different room with Sarah staying with Nathan. Sarah watched the candles flames dance with Nathan being absorbed by it, listening to the conversation between Rebecca and Marcel, "What happened?" he heard Rebecca's voice echo through the candle, "Okay so the phone is locked, and you don't know the password. There has to be a way to unlock it". The conversation continued, "If the photo Is on the cloud, then we just need to unlock it and it should be on there, right? We'll find Elijah". Nathan began to panic, as his memories began to pour back. Remembering how had seen the woman take the pictures of his father and confronted her about it, deleted the photo's and cursed her. But, if the photo was uploaded to the cloud, his family was in jeopardy. If they managed to retrieve it their cover would be blown and their family would never be safe. Nathan continued to listen to conversation finding out that Marcel had hidden the phone in his personal safe, hidden behind a croquette painting. But before he could find out anything else he heard a ear piercing crack coming from one of the other rooms severing hos connection with the flames.

CRACK!! The sound echoed throughout the house, sounding like something had smashed on the floor. Klaus jumped up from his chair and speedily ran into the room where the sound originated from with Elijah following quickly behind him. When Klaus arrived he saw an old China vase shattered all over the floor with the stalemate sons looking guiltily up at him, "YOU STUPID CHILDREN DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW OLD THAT VASE WAS!?" He screamed at them, his face red with anger, his body shaking. The children were both scared, at his reaction as they began to tear up. Link stepped forward shaking and quivered, "It was an accident. I'm sorry" as Hurricane grasped his wrist from where he had cut himself. "SORRY ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH-" Klaus began but was interrupted by Elijah, "Don't shout at my children" he told him firmly, which left Klaus speechless. He then went over to his son's making sure they were okay but saw that Hurricane had a bit of China imbedded in his wrist. Although Klaus was still angry tried his best to remain calm, "That vase was over 200 years old, Stalemate.". Elijah took a deep sigh before turning around to Klaus, "No it wasn't, It's a fake. You can tell by the paint work that it wasn't hand painted, like it would have been If it was in fact 200 years old" he pointed out before turning to Hurricane and removing the China from his wrist and performing a healing spell. "Are you saying my brother is a liar?" Klaus fired. "No, I'm saying he broke the original vase, so he got a fake replica to replace it. Now let me heal my son, then we'll leave" Elijah answered truthfully, knowing that was exactly what had happened around 30 years ago. He then kissed It better and hugged Hurricane whilst scuffing up his red hair. Klaus looked astonished, his mouth wide open as Elijah took the two boys to the dining room getting their jackets, turning to the remainder of the guests as the table, "Thank you for your hospitality but we will be leaving now" he told them as Nathan and Sarah came in behind him after witnessing the whole situation. The family then put on their coats and Link lifting up his arms to put his coat on accidently revealed part of his scar catching Rebecca's attention. She pointed to the scar "What that?" and Link looked down to where she was pointing realising she meant his scar "Oh I've had that since I was a baby" he smiled leaning into her like he was telling her a secret "But that's nothing, you should see my dads back-" but was cut of by Nathan grabbing his arm "come on Link were going now" pulling him away before he could say anything else. "bye" Link waved to Rebecca and Kol as he and Nathan joined the rest of his family. They then went to leave when Klaus entered the hallway looking a mix of pissed off and defeated. Elijah seeing this turned to him "They will be punished for breaking the vase. I promise you" Elijah assured him before leaving with the rest of his family leaving an echoing silence in his place. Klaus locked the door behind them and headed back to the dinning room where his siblings were divulging into a bottle of red wine. He came into the room with a smile on his face, "I like him".

"What happened?" Elijah asked the boys as they ventured into the pack house "It was an accident dad, we promise" Link told his father with his brother nodded "I don't doubt that Link, but you both promised not to play fight" the boys looked at each other knowing they had been caught out, "But dad it was soo boring. Nathan was too busy with the stupid candle to play with us" Hurricane Elijah whined to his father, with Nathan behind his father trying to get his little brother to stop talking. Elijah turned to Nathan, "what where you doing?" he asked sternly. Nathan knew the cat was out of the bag, he didn't want to lie to his father but he didn't want him to know about him blowing a random woman's head off, "I was... trying to get through to mum, but I had no luck" he made up on the spot, he could tell his father wasn't completely convinced but gave him the benefit of the doubt as he turned back towards his younger brothers. "Boys, you still disobeyed me. So, no painting and no cello for the rest of the week" he informed his sons who in return looked like they had been stabbed in the heart "But dad-" they began to protest "Don't make me take away your magic books as well" he snapped and the boys hushed up, accepting their punishment as they went to go upstairs into their room. But just before they did Elijah stopped them "Link, my watch" holding his hand out. Link sighed deeply walking over to his father placing his watch and something else in his hand "This little habit of yours needs to stop, son" he told him, Link looked displeased "Its not my fault I'm good at it" to which Elijah looked disapprovingly at his son. Link getting the idea nodded and rushed upstairs to join his brother. "What did he steal this time?" Ash voice appeared from behind him, Elijah turned towards him seeing Thea standing next to him, "Oh my watch and-" he stopped recognosing the other object unmistakably being Klaus's daylight ring "Klaus's daylight ring". He didn't know whether he should be proud or concerned that his son was such a proven thief. "Oh no, do you think he realise before tomorrow morning?" Ash questioned, "who will?" Thea asked curiously, still standing next to Ash, "Thea why don't you go play with your cousins upstairs?". With a huge smile on her face she darted upstairs showing off her vampire speed in the process, leaving the two doppelgangers alone. "I love that boy, but I don't know where this sudden habit of stealing has come from. What am I doing wrong?" Elijah sighed looking at the daylight ring in his hand. "Maybe he needs a bit of mental stimulation, it's not easy being coped up all day" Ash suggested. "I tried to get them out the house as much as possible" Elijah defended himself knowing that he tried his hardest to give them all attention they needed. But having to look after two young children and two babies meant this was no easy feet. "I know you did. You know I think I saw an ad for a youth club in town, on Saturday I think, maybe you should take the kids. Let them play with kids their own age. It will give you a break" Ash teased him coming over to inspect the day light ring, "You think it will help them?" Elijah asked giving the daylight ring to Ash, "don't get me wrong, I'm no expert. But I think it would be good for them to make friends outside of their own family" while he was talking admired the craftsmanship of the ring "It's beautiful" before passing it back to Elijah. Before they could talk about it any further, they heard a thunderous sound coming from the staircase and Link came rushing down, "Dad! Why did you let her play with us? She keeps bossing me and Elijah around!" he complained and Elijah couldn't help but smile, "she's family son" but as if luck itself shinned upon them Claire came into the room grabbing Link gently by the shoulders, "Hi boys. Is Thea here?". The doppelganger twins both pointed upstairs, Claire smiled and shouted from the bottom of the stairs, "Thea sweetheart, It's time to go home" where she was met with a defiant "NO!". "Get down here right now young lady!" Claire shouted back up at her "NO! Mum I'm playing with Link and Elijah" Thea thundered back. "Don't make me count: 3, 2-" Claire began and Ash and Elijah heard movement from upstairs as Thea made her decent downstairs, "that wasn't so hard was it?" Claire took her hand, "Say goodnight to your uncles and Link". Thea mumbled the goodbyes to her family before leaving with Claire. Ash turned towards Elijah, "She has a mean temper that one, can't think where she gets that from" they shared a chuckle knowing full well that she gets it from her father.

Chapter 9

The ebony hour of midnight fell upon the pack. The raging snoring of Hurricane echoed through the pack house causing the rest of the house to be wide awake. Nathan was lying in bed fully awake and dressed. Ready to sneak out and recover the phone to protect his families secret, whatever the cost. He slowly maneuvered out of bed trying to avoid the loose floorboards around him, almost tip toeing out of the room and into the landing. He looked around trying to see if his father was still downstairs, knowing that if he was caught it would jeopardies everything. Locating his father sitting in the living room he knew the front door was a no go. Desperation overtook him, he knew both time and options were short, he crept backwards into his room one of the floorboards squeaked. He rushed back into his room hearing Sarah in the room next door open her door before getting back in her bed. Nathan pondered on what to do next. He looked at the window knowing that the pipe was right outside. Seeing no other option, Nathan performed an illusion spell that his Uncle James had taught him, using it to make himself look like his father before gently opening the window scaling down the large pipe carefully making his way to ground level, his new height making the whole endeavor easier. He then fell into the shadows in his new form, determined to retrieve the phone. So determined that he hadn't noticed the curtains twitching upstairs.

The disguised Nathan crept into town using the old abandoned underground tunnels to avoid detection, using the flames of a candle to lead him in the right direction. He speedily wondered through the tunnels swatting away at the blankets of cobwebs filled with arachnid occupants. The only sound was the echo of his leather shoes making contact with the dusty floor. Soon enough he made it to a dead end, but this was exactly where he wanted to be. Turning to the right he saw a oddly placed candle holder, Nathan smiled pulling the holder down revealing a winding staircase. Following it up to the top he reached a hatch and with a little persuasion he propped it open, he was in. Before completely emerging from the hatch he looked around the room, it looked like a study a oak desk placed at the back of the room, with a book case next to the door, but more importantly no one was in the room. Nathan slowly pulled himself out of the hatch leaving it open, before slowly creeping to the door to see if anyone was around. Carefully poking his head out he checked if the coast was clear and with affirmation from the flames he began to make his way next door where all the magical artifacts were kept, trying to draw as little attention as possible. Successfully, making it next door he saw shelves upon shelves of redundant magical artifacts, but what caught his attention was an oil painting of a Victorian croquet match. This was the painting that hid the safe, he went over to it gently pulling the painting, which revealed the hidden safe in the wall, the phone would be in there. Nathan looked intensely at the safe and his face dropped like a sack of bricks. Not only did the safe have a combination lock, but it also had a keyhole for a key. He was told the code buy his ancestors but the key was a hole new challenge. Nathan new he couldn't force it open himself the metal was too thick and using his magic was risky. The disguised Nathan, stood deep in thought, his hand on his chin contemplating his next move. He couldn't go home empty handed. Out of nowhere an ear-piercing screeching began to echo through the building breaking Nathans trail of thought, and his ear drums. He cupped his hands over his ears trying to block out the deafening sound of the screaming sirens when an icy chill shivered down his spine from a sudden large gust of wind. But what concerned him was what came with it as he turned around to see the image of his father looking back at him, with a huge smile on his face. But what gave it away was that it wasn't him was that he was wearing what appeared to be his brother's favorite denim jacket, "Link? What are you doing here?". The smile on Links faced melted away at Nathans response, "I saw you leave...". "You shouldn't be here, Link. Its dangerous" Nathan interrupted pulling his brother from the doorway. Link tilted his head in confusion, "But you're here". Nathan couldn't argue with Links logic, but the blaring noise of the sirens inhibited his judgment, "You set of the alarms, didn't you? You broke in". Link looked guiltily down at the floor, "It was an accident, I just followed the flames to you". Nathan rolled his eyes the sirens becoming more infuriating by the minute "Why Link? Why did you follow me here?". But Link wasn't listening something else had caught his attention "Link are you even listening to me?". "Shush" Link whispered to his brother. Nathan looked back at him offended, "I know you just didn't tell me to shush!" Link placed his hand over Nathans mouth "Shut up Nate! Someone's coming". The brothers slowly crept out room to the landing where they saw dozens of vampires start to arrive downstairs, all grouped up wondering what triggered the alarm. Nathans face became riddled with worry, he knew he could take them with his magic, but time was not on there side, his disguise would soon fade away. "We need to go" he whispered to Link grabbing his little brother by the wrist "But we didn't open the safe yet" Nathan stopped looking confused, "How do you know about that- never mind we need to get out of here" Nathan stepped forward, the floorboard creaking as he did drawing the attention of the vampires downstairs. The boys turned their heads downstairs making eye contact with the vampires, who upon seeing them were frozen in shock whispering amongst themselves "It's Elijah Mikaelson!". Nathan began to hyperventilate, they knew, their cover had been blown. The vampires soon recovered from their initial shock as Nathan desperately looked around trying to stop them from climbing up the stairs to confront them. As the first one approached the bottom of the staircase Nathan used his magic to create a wall of green flames which blocked the entrance to the staircase. Using this window of opportunity Nathan pulled Link along to the study room pushing him into the open hatch in the ground going in after him and closing the hatch behind him. The pair then raced down the stairs, using their magic to light the way through to the underground tunnel, not stopping until they knew they weren't being followed. When they did eventually stop, Nathan leaned himself against the wall catching his breath. Amongst the chaos their spells had worn off unmasking the children's true identities. "I don't think their following us" Nathan's voice echoed through the hollow tunnel, as the brothers listened out behind them for any slightest sign of the vampires coming up behind them. Instead Link saw a small white light coming towards them from which would have been their exit. Illuminating the tunnel as it grow closer, "Nathan..." Link looked at his brother full of worry. Nathan stared at the approaching light, he didn't want to get lost underground if they ran into the labyrinth of tunnels in front of them. That was the only way out, and Nathan would do anything to get Link home safely. Nathan then began to prepare a spell, but before he could complete it, they heard "Boys?! Is that you?" coming from the light illuminating the tunnel. "Uncle Ash?" The boys recognised the voice as belonging to their uncle. The boys then heard the accompanying sound of footsteps as he used his vampire speed to reach them as quickly as possible, stopping right in front of them. Seeing it was them he shouted, "Claire, I found them!" before puling them in for a huge hug, "We were so worried" squeezing his nephews tightly. They then heard Claire running up to them, Ash freeing them form the hug, she was less forgiving than their uncle. "Why did sneak out? Your father has been worried sick!" she asked them firmly. The brothers glanced at each other with Nathan slowly shaking his head at Link and they both looked down at the floor, "The silent treatment, hey? Lets see if you have the same attitude when you explain this to your father!" Claire snapped with the boys wondering how they would tell him, Nathan hadn't planned on being caught. The four of them slowly made their way out of the underground tunnel into the open air once more as they slowly made their way back home to the pack with Aunt Claire calling the Pack to tell them the boys were safe

....

"Is Klaus here?" Marcel storming into the house unannounced, the sudden force of his arrival almost knocking Rebecca over with Marcel catching her last minute. "Hello Rebecca, how are you Rebecca?" she scowled at him but be wasn't listening looking around trying to find Klaus. Eventually finding him sitting on the couch a glass of whiskey in his hand reading a newspaper. Upon seeing him, Marcel burst into the room "Klaus I need to tell you about something, It's important" with Klaus taking a quick glance at his worried face knew that he was being serious sighing "...and today was going so well. What was so important that you had to bust your way in here?" as he placed the newspaper on the table giving Marcel his full attention and Rebecca joining them sitting with Klaus on the couch. Marcel sat on the arm chair and braced himself for Klaus' sure to be over the top response. Before telling him the news he took a deep breath being prompted by Klaus "Go on Marcel, I don't have all day". "My house was broken into last night." Hearing the Klaus' sarcastic "oh no" echoing in the background. "Was anything stolen?" Rebecca asked significantly more concerned then her brother. Marcel shook his head "No-" but was interrupted by Klaus "Then why are you here?" with Marcel snapping back "Stop interrupting me and you'll find out" the pair exchanging a heated glare before Marcel continued "Some of the vampires that got there first reported that they saw two Elijah Mikaelson's, on the upper levels before they disappeared. I thought you would like to know". An deafening silence lingered as they absorbed this information, a million questions running through there heads. Then it began to click in Klaus' mind his face began to turn red full of anger getting up from the couch full of determination. Rebecca and Marcel looked worried "Where are you going?".

"To pay our brothers doppelganger a visit".

As soon as he opened the front door the beams of sunlight caused him to burst into flames. Pain searing through his body he quickly hurled himself inside ignoring the intense itching sensation all throughout his body as he began to heal. Hearing the commotion Rebecca and Marcel met him in the hallway confused on what had happened. Klaus looked down at his hand confused on what just happened, he had his daylight ring on, but was surprised to see that he didn't. "Nik? You okay?" Rebecca asked him seeing him covered in burns with him just staring blankly at his naked hands "My daylight ring is gone". "We can see that" Marcel replied sarcastically receiving death stares from both Klaus and Rebecca. Fighting through the pain of his burns healing Klaus rummaged through his box of spares on the hallway table not finding one that fit him. In a fit of anger he threw the box against the wall making Rebecca jump "For fuck sake! A whole box of daylight rings and not one that bloody fits me properly!". Instead he came up with the solution of taking off his necklace and picking a daylight ring from off the floor and placing it on the necklace before putting it back around his neck when he was done "There". Proud of himself he went to leave once more "Nik, where are you going?" Rebecca asked, Klaus turned towards her "I told you to the Pack. Marcel said there were two of them-" "No I said some of my vampires reported they saw two Elijah's. That doesn't mean there actually was" Marcel shut him down with Rebecca agreeing with him "It could be someone trying to mess with us. It's not worth fighting the pack over". Klaus scowled back at her "I will do whatever it takes to find him" and Rebecca spat back "And I wouldn't? He's my brother too, or did you forget that?" Klaus ignored her focusing on the task at hand "If Ash knows anything about Elijah's disappearance I need to tare it out of him" dashing off before Rebecca could stop him leaving her and Marcel alone with their thoughts. Rebecca let out a depressed sigh as small tears rained down her face "Sometimes I feel like I've lost both of them again". Marcel gently reeled her in for a hug "We will find Elijah, the real Elijah. I promise". Rebecca relented from the hug a warm smile on her face as she wiped her tears with her sleeve "We should go stop him before he starts a war with the wolves". Marcel sighed knowing they had to stop him, the Pack wouldn't go down without a fight and he could tell that Rebecca was mentally drained by the whole situation "lead the way" as the pair darted off to find Klaus.

Chapter 10

The morning sun blazing down on the New moon pack as they welcomed a new day. Elijah was downstairs with his three boys trying to teach them who to use their witch magic but not having his own witch magic meant this wasn't easy. Both Nathan and Link favoring their dark demon magic "Dad, why do I have to use my witch magic and do an hours preparation when I could use my demon magic and do the spell in a matter of seconds?" he argued. Elijah shook his head in disbelief "You need to be able to control both your demon magic and witch magic, there different. How many times do I have to tell you that?". Nathan and Link thought about their fathers question but were interrupted by someone shouting outside.

"WHERE IS HE! WHERE IS MY BROTHER!"

Elijah felt a chill run down his spine knowing who the voice belonged to. He confirmed it by looking out the window seeing Klaus on the border of the Packs territory screaming at Ash, with them only being separated by a weak sheet of magic. Nathan joined his father at the window seeing this for himself knowing that this had something to do with his antics the previous nights. They then heard the front door open with Claire, Athena, George and his husband Clay coming through to the safety of the lounge. Athena sitting in-between him and Hurricane, much to Link's dismay. "Who is it?" she whispered to Link "That's Luna Dahlia's nephew" he said before remembering he hated her. Sensing Claire's fear, not of Klaus but for Thea, Elijah knew he had to stop him before he broke the barrier and killed Ash. Turning to Claire "I'm going to stop this. Can you watch the children?" with Claire nodding in response. Elijah made sure he was wearing his pendant before leaving the Pack-house determined to stop Klaus' tantrum slowly walking up behind Ash "Can I help you?". Klaus' faces was full of anger as he walked up and down the barrier of the territory huffing "Oh great the stalemates here" when he saw the disguised Elijah approaching. Ash then turned around a look of relief on his face upon seeing him "he thinks I broke into one of the vampires homes with Elijah last night. Who now apparently I'm hiding from his family" he told him with Klaus screaming "They said there were two of you there! You're the only other one!". This seemed to click in Elijah's mind, before they left home the boys were taught by their uncle James some illusion spells on a video call, they were the ones that broke in to the house. "I'm afraid you are mistaken. My brother was here all night. There is no way he could have been behind the break in". This made Klaus furious "Liar! Say that to my face or are you to scared to face me without a magic barrier in the way?". Elijah let out a small chuckle as he shook his head before simply stepping through the barrier, standing on the outside with his brother. Without even a hint of fear on his face he told him again "My brother was here, at the pack, the whole of last night. There is no way he had anything to do with the break in" finishing with a cocky smile on his face. Klaus then attempted to compel him but failed with Elijah believing this to be an advanced hybrid immunity. This apparent failure made Klaus furious as he his eyes turned neon yellow and went to bore his fangs but was surprised by the relaxed nature of the stalemate in front of him not even flinching at the face of death. The stalemate had earned his respect. "Nik! Stop!" Rebecca shouted catching up to him. Klaus eyes fading back to normal upon seeing his sister and Marcel behind him "Relax, Rebecca. Me and my new stalemate friend here, cleared everything up" with Elijah immediately snapping back "I'm not your friend". Klaus smiled back at him pleased with his response "I like you" making Elijah roll his eyes "I can assure you the feeling isn't mutual" hoping that he would leave him and his family alone. At the corner of his eye he saw Ash look behind him seeing someone coming and to his surprise it was Dahlia who had arrived home with Alpha Peter "What are you doing here?" she questioned Klaus, standing next to Elijah. Klaus let out an irritated sigh "I had to clear up something. But me and the stalemate worked it out". "His name is Raven, not Stalemate" Alpha Peter angrily told him making his presence known. "Alright big guy were leaving" he told him going to join Rebecca and Marcel but before he did he turned to Ash threatening him "If I find out your lying I will rip out your heart faster then you can call you dear old daddy for help. And I might even keep your brother as a souvenir". Klaus then turned around joining Marcel and Rebecca but before they dashed off Elijah stopped them "Wait. I believe this is yours" he rummaged around in his jacket pocket revealing Klaus's daylight ring and threw it to Klaus. Klaus caught it in his hand and examined it seeing the ring and recognizing it as his daylight ring "My daylight ring?" immediately putting it back on his finger. "My son is going through the nasty habit of stealing at the moment. I'm trying to get him out of it" Elijah admitted but Klaus didn't seem to mind. "Well he wears a suit he's clearly got good taste-" "No it wasn't Nathan. It was my youngest" Elijah interrupted him, Klaus looking back at him surprised remembering correctly that his youngest son was a tiny blond pipsqueak "The runt?". In response Elijah gave him a death stare "Link" he corrected him with Ash and the others scowling at Klaus offended. As the trio dashed off into the distance the pack let out a huge sigh of relief. "What was that?" the Alpha shouted at his sons, but they remained silent. Elijah went back into the borders of the pack territory pacing back to the pack house as he shouted "BOYS!".

Following the aftermath of Klaus' visit and another one of their father lectures, Link watched Nathan from his room as he fiddled around with his chemistry set working on some sort of paralytic potion. The brothers were still not talking after the events of the previous night and being grounded. Link felt an overarching sensation to make it right, he needed that phone. "Link, stop it" his red headed brother told him who was drawing Links portrait, Link looked back at him perplexed, "stop what?" Hurricane smiled back "Your making your I'm going to do something stupid face". "What face?" Link laughed and Hurricane shook his head in disbelief "The same face you made when you decided it would be fun to set fire to the rug!". "But that was fun... sort off" Link defended himself with Hurricane frowning back at his little brother. "Listen, dad is always saying that mistakes are only mistakes until there fixed- or something like that. I messed up big time last night, I put our family in danger. I need your help to make it right, will you help me?" Link begged, "I let you play my cello". Hurricane chuckled, "Why would I want to play your cello?" to which Link just shrugged his shoulders "Please.... I'll let you have my desserts for a whole week". "That's better, I'm in" Hurricane nodded and the two brothers hugged in excitement. "But how are you going to get the phone, I thought the safe had a key and a number thingy" Elijah asked his brother to which Nathan went over to his denim jacket placing his hand in the left pocket taking out a small key and showing it to his brother, "I took this last night, and the ancestors told me the numbers for the safe. All I need for you to do is help and cover for me" Hurricane got the main part of the plan but was confused on the last part, "how am I going to cover for you?". "Remember that ear thing that Nathan got for his birthday?" Link asked Hurricane to which nodded, "The walkie-talkie and the earpiece yes". "We need those. But there in Nathans room and he hasn't left all morning" Link replied sadly, Hurricane smiled placing his hand on Link's shoulder, "Don't worry little brother, I've got this" before walking cockily out of their room heading to Nathans room.

Nathan was in his room finally finished his paralytic potion which was strong enough to paralyze an original, although he had no way to prove that. He felt bad that he hadn't spoken to Link since last night but he had gotten a bit swept up in completing his project, he knew he would have to make it up to him later he hated seeing him upset. KNOCK! KNOCK! He heard someone throb on his door, "come in". The door slowly creaked open revealing Hurricane standing in the doorway. He had a huge smile on his face, like he was having a sugar high or had a huge secret, "What have you done?" Nathan asked him. Hurricane tried to contain his smile, "What do you mean? I haven't done anything?" he lied his voices tone changing from normal to high as he did. Nathan raised his eyebrow at him, "You've done something, I can tell" before turning around back to his desk. "I don't know what you mean. But anyway... could you play with me? I'm bored" Hurricane pleaded initiating the first step in his plan. "Elijah, I'm busy as the moment. Can't Link play with you?" He shut him down. "But I want you to play with me, you always make the best games. Link's not as fun as you" Hurricane pressured him, Nathan sighed "Elijah not right now" "Please" Hurricane interrupted to which Nathan firmly shouted "NO!". Hurricane turned away defeated looking upset shutting the door behind him but leaving it the tinniest bit open. Nathan felt full of regret for shewing his little brother away like that. But Hurricane had moved on the next part of his plan going back into his and Links room grabbing a round pillow from his bed, "I'm not fun?" Link questioned him looking genuinely upset "You're the funist, I just said that for this next part. As soon as he leaves the room grab what you need" the brothers nodded in agreement as Hurricane took the pillow and once again approached Nathans room whilst Link watched the events unfold from their room. Hurricane snuck over to Nathans room raising the pillow above his head before pushing the door open, the doors collision with the wall creating a huge thud. He then threw the pillow at Nathan hitting him in the back of the head. Nathans body stiffened as rage filled his body, as he grabbed the pillow from off the floor, "Your going to regret that". He then proceeded to chase after Hurricane leaving his room undefended, Elijah enjoying the chase had a gleaming smile on his face as Nathan caught him downstairs. This then resulted in a pillow fight as the two brothers faced off, Hurricane using his magic to pull some sofa cushions to his aid whilst laughing "Your going down Nathan!". "We'll see, firecracker" Nathan smiled being absorbed into the fun of the pillow fight. The two then did their best to hit the other using both their arms and magic for the best part of 5 minutes, enjoying every second of it. "Boys, as much as I love watching your escapades, your getting feathers everywhere and Nathan your still grounded" their father told them appearing from the kitchen, a cookie and cup of coffee in hand. Being pulled pack reality the brothers looked around at the vast array of feathers spread all over the living room. "I'm sorry dad, we didn't realise" Nathan apologised with Hurricane doing the same as they quickly cleaned up the feathers using their magic. Satisfied with how fast they managed to tidy up Elijah offered them a cookie, "Why don't you two get a cookie from the Kitchen, Me and your sister made them, they should still be warm". Nathan and Elijah ran into the kitchen to get a taste of the delicious cookies. Noticing that Link wasn't with them he went to the bottom of the stairs and shouted, "Link! Cookies!" as he waited a short two seconds before Link rushed past him into the kitchen "Cookies where?!" as he frantically looked around the Kitchen. Sarah having to point them out to him on the counter. After the family all grabbed a cookie each they went into the living room enjoy them. Link and Hurricane-Elijah were sat next to each other on the rug despite the vacant spaces on the sofa's whispering in to each other's ears. Elijah not liking the secrecy asked, "What are you two whispering about?" to which Link quickly replied, "Were just talking about what we want for our birthdays". "Care to enlighten the rest of us?" Elijah wanted to know so he could acquire what they wanted, as although their birthdays were a few months away he knew they would fly by. "We haven't decided yet" Hurricane told their father honestly. "Okay but trust me your birthdays will be here sooner then you think.". "Dad?" Link asked with Elijah finishing the last bite of his cookie "Yes?". "Why do you wear that necklace, are you not happy with how you look?" Link cut deep having no filter because of being a child. "What? It's nothing to do with that. I'll tell you when your older" Elijah said perplexed on where this was coming from, "So Is it because of us? Are we bad?" Hurricane-Elijah asked looking saddened at the prospect of them being responsible for their fathers' insecurities. "No, it's not because of you. Where is this coming from?" Elijah asked his sons, but Nathan took over telling them the white lie of, "It's because of Uncle Ash, dad and uncle Ash are twins. People often get them confused and dad even got shot once because of it". The two youngsters lighting up demanding an explanation, mesmerized by the fact that their father had been shot and they were only just hearing about it now "you got shot?" "Cool!" the two brothers shouted excitedly. Elijah just rolled his eyes and Sarah lost in thought mumbled under her breath "I activated my curse that day too" to which her brothers looked at her in awe. "Who was shot?" the voice of Alpha Peter echoed from behind them. The family then followed the voice to the doorway seeing Alpha Peter standing there and Ash just hanging his coat up. "Dad was!" Link shouted back a little bit too excited. "oh yes, I remember. But listen boys you must promise not to mention that to Luna Dahlia, she gets a bit freaked out by the slightest mention of blood" Peter told them which was a straight up lie, "Okay, we promise" both boys said in sync. Hearing Dahlia approaching the house Link and Hurricane rushed upstairs to finalise the plan to get the phone back and for Nathan to talk to Link again. 

Chapter 11

Night soon approached and their plan began to fall into place. Hurricane had placed pillows in Links bed to make it look like he was in bed, as well as performing an illusion spell for safe measure. Link had the earpiece hidden in his ear so he and Hurricane could communicate throughout the whole ordeal, Hurricane placing the walkie-talkie under his pillow. Around Links neck he had two small vials, one containing his blood, the other some of Nathan's paralytic potion. He made sure he had the key to the safe in his pocket along with one of Sarah's daggers which he borrowed when Nathan and Hurricane were having their pillow fight. The pair turned towards each other ready to go on this dangerous mission, knowing full well the consequences if Link got caught. But Link wasn't worried. "Your ready" Hurricane smiled nervously at his little brother. "Not yet" which cased Hurricane to be confused, "What are you missing?". "I need you to scratch me, hard." Link commanded. Hurricane's first attempt barely braised the skin, "Come on Elijah! It needs to looks convincing, you need to draw blood". "Why?" he looked back at him, "trust me, this needs to look real for the plan to work. I'm a newly turned vampire, I need to look the part" he assured his brother who took a deep breath, "Okay, but I don't like hitting you" before using all his strength to create as deep lesion running down his cheek to the top of his neck which poured with blood, "I'm so sorry". "It's perfect! Do a couple more on my chest" Link instructed, with Hurricane doing as commanded. Link knew the wounds would heal straight away, but it was more about the blood splatter being realistic then the actual wounds. After he was convinced that Hurricane had injured him enough, he used his own magic to transform his blond hair and brown eyes to brown hair and blue eyes, curtsey of uncle James, and headed out to perform his plan.

Link became absorbed into the shadows as he made his way to town following the same way he went last night trailing Nathan. He didn't go all the way to the house as he didn't want to become suspicious, he needed a way in. A few blocks away he saw a female vampire feeding and knew she was his way in. He slowly approached her and her sensing his approach finished her last mouthful of prey his lifeless body plummeting to the ground, "what you looking at kid?". Link looked at her fake crying, "Can you help me? Some man attacked me and my family and I woke up like this. I smelt something delicious over here. I'm just soo hungry" Link whimpered. To which the vampire took sympathy her body relaxing realizing that he too was a vampire and by the looks of it had been recently turned. "What your name sweetie?" the woman asked and Link felt as if he had seen her before somewhere, remembering her long blond hair and blue eyes not being able to quite place them. Link whimpered before replying, "my name is Sam" after seeing the diner name behind them. "Okay Sam, how old are you?" she asked him a follow up question, "I'm 5¾ ". "You poor baby, come with me I know someone who might be able to help you" she told him grabbing hold of his hand, he was in. Hurricane back at the pack house hadn't been listening for the last part hearing their father rumble around the bottom of the staircase doing something but when Hurricane knew the coast was clear he turned the walkie talkie on, connecting him to Link's earpiece the connection making Link flinch, "Owww!". Hurricane listened to a voice of a woman ask him if he was okay and Link reply of, "yeah, I think one of my ribs snapped back in place". "Don't worry sweetie it will get easier" a woman replied.

She then led him to Marcels house and went to go inside when Elijah reminded Link that normal vampires needed to be invited in. So, to keep up his façade Link pretended to get stopped just outside, "Oh how silly of me, come in" the woman said pulling Link inside. In contrary to last night the whole place was flooded with vampires "Nik must be out again" she said under her breath as she carved her way through the crowd not letting go of Link, heading to the staircase "who?" Link asked accidently bashing into multiple people until they reached the bottom of staircase, "Out the way! I need to see Marcel, this boy needs help" she told the group loitering around the stairs. She then turned back to Link, "Klaus Mikaelson is an original vampire-hybrid, he's also my brother. We live here in New Orleans, but our brother went missing a few years ago and he's been in a nasty mood ever since." Before Rebecca could tell him anything else Link became distracted by the vampires looking down at him. "He's been turned. I'm Rebecca Mikaelson, I will kill you if you don't get out of my way. This kid needs to see Marcel. Now!" Rebecca screamed, the congregating vampires looked confused considering Links age. "That young?" they pondered to which Rebecca nodded, "I know, horrible isn't it. Now are you going to move or not?" they all nodded in agreement as they moved aside making room for them to go past.

Once a path was cleared the pair headed up the stairs where a thick wooden door awaited them. Rebecca didn't even bother to knock barging her way inside, catching the man inside off guard. He was dark skinned and broadly built. Link recognizing him from one of the photographs in the vampire's house. "Rebecca? What are you doing here?" surprised to see her, she then turned to Link, "Sorry to barge in, but this is important this boy needs your help. He's been turned". Marcel stared at Link speechless at what was in front of him, the boy was no more than six years old if that and his life had already been destroyed, "he's so young". "His name is Sam and your 51/2... didn't you say sweetie?". Link nodded as Marcel passed him a blood bag which he graciously accepted. Regretfully, Rebecca had to go she had been trying to hunt down Klaus and had only stopped for a quick meal when she discovered the boy steering her away from her main objective, "Marcel, I've got to go find Klaus. Is it okay if I leave him with you?". He returned a smile, "of course, just try and make sure he doesn't kill anyone. Me and the kid will be okay". She bent down to speak to Link, "I have to go find my brother now, but my friend here is going to help you, okay?" she said before dashing out the room with her vampire speed leaving the two of them alone in the room.

Taking a closer look at the boy Marcel sighed seeing his clothes stained with blood, "so kid, do you remember what happened to you? It's okay if you don't" he asked. Link finished his mouthful of blood ready to give a performance of a lifetime, "I don't remember much. But there was this man my parents let him in, I don't know why. He attacked my dad first ripping out his heart. My mum told me to hide and I ran as fast as I could..... I-I-I heard my mums screams" he paused to cry "then he came for me, I don't recall anything after that. The next thing I remember is waking up feeling like my stomach was on fire and seeing my mother still breathing I couldn't stop myself, I bit her. And... I didn't let go until she stopped breathing" He sobbed tears pouring down his face. Hurricane, who was listening to this back at home didn't know if he should be proud or concerned knowing his brother had made that up on the spot, but he was nailing it. Back in the artifacts room, Link took the opportunity to activate his spell, his eyes flashing pure white as he did.

The vampires downstairs were all converged together trying to remain safe from the threat that awaited them outside, what they didn't know yet was there was an even bigger threat that was now inside the walls. They were all talking and joking around when half of the refugee vampires eyes turned white, remaining motionless. The unaffected vampires became confused waving their hands in the effected faces trying to bring them back to reality. One vampire in the crowd was viciously shaking his effected friend telling him to "Wake up!". To which the friend suddenly came alive bearing his fangs ripping out his throat. This caused a mass panic as all the effected vampires began to come alive massacring any vampires that entered their path leaving piles of ashes in their wake. Slaughtering vampire after vampire until the floor was stained in crimson blood trickling down to the very foundations of the house. No one was safe from the brutal massacre, as when the unaffected where all but dust the remaining vampires began to succumb to the spell turning on one another, killing anything and everything that moved.

The blood curdling screams echoed to the upper level of the house, the ensuing chaos had caught Marcels attention "What is going on?" He got up from his seat to see what the commotion was all about, hoping for Rebecca's sake that Klaus hadn't gone against their agreement. He went past Link his back turned towards him as he investigated. Link seizing this opportunity took Sarah's dagger out of his pocket quickly pouring the vile of his blood and the paralytic potion onto the dagger before darting up behind Marcel plunging the dagger into his back. Marcel then turned around grabbing Link by the neck pushing him against the wall but Link didn't even flinch. "What have you don...e" his words began to slur, blood pouring from his mouth as the paralytic potion began to take effect. Link watched in amusement as his grip slowly loosened from his neck. His face and body slowly began to drift to the floor as he began to loose the fight of consciousness. Within 30 seconds a blanket of unconsciousness had taken hold of him as his body hit the floor, his last act of defiance being to grab Links neck, not quite reaching the target. Once he was fully unconscious Link stepped over him walking over to the old croquette painting, "Elijah, I'm opening the safe now" he informed his brother who was still listening on the other end. Link then took the key out of his pocket placing it in the lock in the safe and entered the four digit combination 1789 pressing enter and turning the key at the same time with his other hand. The safe opened revealing plentiful precious artifacts, but Link only wanted the phone. He then grabbed the phone from the top shelf placing it In his pocket before shutting the safe once more. He then ventured outside the room to the upstairs landing where he was met with a deathly silence. All around him were piles upon piles of ashes scattered as far as his eyes could see, the putrid smell of death lingering in the air, the floor now a river of blood. Link smiled at his work telling his brother "I'm coming home now. I've got the phone". He then carefully made his way downstairs trying not to get blood on his shoes as he made his way outside being greeted by an icy chill before he disappeared back into the ebony night.

Thanks to his vampire speed he made it back to the pack house within a few minutes, carefully climbing back up the vines that lead outside his and Hurricane's bedroom. Hurricane then opened the window allowing his brother entry and Link slowly placed himself down on the floor but still caused a huge thump. "What was that story?" Hurricane joked hitting him on the shoulder. Link looked at him with a gleaming smile on his face, "I told you it had to be convincing-" Hurricane stopped him mid-sentence hearing there father coming up the stairs. Both boys rushed into their beds Link pulling his covers all the way up to his neck. They heard him approach the door and slowly opened it just in case they were asleep, "Are you boys okay, I thought I heard something?" he asked softly seeing them both awake, with both of them shaking their heads in response, "Okay, goodnight" he said leaving the room shutting the door behind him, "night, love you" Link couldn't help himself and they heard the faintest "Love you too" from the other side of the door. The waited for him to go back downstairs before talking about what had happened, but he seemed to talk to Nathan and Sarah for an eternity. Instead, both boys drifted fast sleep giving into to their exhaustion having a well deserved sleep knowing that their family was safe once again.

Chapter 12

A blanket of mist covered the city as the early morning sun began to wake up making way for a fresh new day. Rebecca and Kol were out early trying to get some errands done so they could do whatever they wanted later on. Rebecca had wanted to stop at Marcels to pick up her favorite coat which she had left there on her previous visit and to check on what happened to the boy she left there the previous night. The pair quickly reached his house and were surprised to see the front door wide open. They both exchanged looks of concern as they slowly began to enter the house. The putrid smell of iron resonated all around them with them both having to pinch their noses and use there free hand as a fan at an attempt to block out the sickening smell. They then noticed the multiple large piles of ashes covering every inch of the floor, "What happened here?" Kol asked with him not knowing where to look. Rebecca, on the other hand, was more concerned about Marcel and the little boy she had left there last night and began screaming at the top of her lungs, "MARCEL!!" but the only response she got was from the flies buzzing all around them. She then decided to phone him getting out her phone from her pocket and ringing it. The siblings listened for the phone and heard the faintest vibration coming from one of the rooms upstairs. They followed the vibrations all the way to the artifacts room seeing Marcel face down with a dagger imbedded in his back. The pair were frozen in shock at the sight, someone had somehow managed to not only kill all the vampires that Marcel was harboring but to best Marcel himself. Rebecca went out of the room desperate for some fresh air, her eyes beginning to tear up. Kol examined the dagger noticing it had the Mikaelson family crest engraved on it, but that wasn't the part that caught his attention, still part of the crest but slightly underneath it was three straight lines which he knew for a fact Elijah used to do for all weapons he welded. "I'm going to call Klaus" he informed Rebecca who had her head propped outside the study rooms window. After finishing his conversation with Klaus, Kol turned his attention back to the crime scene trying to find any clues on why but more importantly how someone would do this. He looked around the room trying to see if anything looked out of place. That's when he saw that one of the paintings on the wall was crooked. He tipped past Marcels lifeless body to examine the painting, upon doing so he uncovered a small safe hidden within the wall. Everything began to fall into place, the attacker wanted something concealed in the safe, the question was what. "What happened here?" Klaus voice bellowed from downstairs, entering the aftermath of the vampire massacre. "Were upstairs. You need to see this!" Kol shouted and within moments Klaus was next to him, Freya was trailing him up the stairs with Rebecca joining them. Klaus looked down at Marcels body in shock, not sure if what he was seeing was the truth. "We found him like that" Kol assured him as Klaus bent down to look at the dagger embedded in his back, noting the engraving on the blade. "Maybe if you pull it out, he'll wake up?" Freya suggested not sure what to do. Klaus wanting to have a closer look at the engraving pulled the dagger out in one swift motion, the siblings looking down at Marcel holding their breath to see if he would react, but to their surprise he remained lifeless. Klaus then inspected the dagger, although he was never much of a blacksmith himself he knew the basics. Tiptoeing back to his siblings, Kol stood next to Klaus, "That's Elijah's engraving, right?" Klaus nodded in agreement taking a closer look at the engraving. Rebecca peaked over Klaus shoulder "That blade looks freshly made, I would say last 2-3 years at the most" her brothers looked at her puzzled, "What? I know things". They all paused to take in the implications of their discovery "The attacker wanted something in the safe. I don't know if they were successful" Kol pointed out his discovery. "Even so, what was so important in that safe they had to kill for it?" Freya pondered leaving the four of them in silence, until Rebecca had a moment of revelation whispering "the phone". "The what?" "speak up Rebecca, you know I hate it when you mumble" Klaus told her as she turned towards the rest of her family "Marcel told me yesterday that two days ago a woman came in saying she had found Elijah-" she was cut of by Klaus "what? Why am I only hearing about this now?". "Because it was a dead end, her head exploded before she could show them the picture. Marcel took the phone to try and get it unlocked but someone tried to break in and they stole the key to the safe. They must of came back last night" Rebecca told them. "So, what is this? Some sort of power play?" Klaus questioned, Rebecca shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, but whoever did this is going to great lengths to keep Elijah's location a secret. The question is why?" a bitter silence echoed between the siblings as the pondered the numerous possibilities of why someone would keep their brother from them. "But if they wanted to keep it a secret, why use a blade with our family crest engraved into it? Unless... it was deliberate" Freya questioned. "Whoever it is playing us for fools and I don't like it" Klaus was began to anger knowing that this person was keeping his brother from him. Rebecca grabbed hold of his shoulder comforting him, "We'll get him back". "Yeah, in another six years" the commented slipped subconsciously from Kol's mouth with him receiving menacing glares from his siblings. "Kol I will punch your teeth out if you don't shut up" Rebecca threatened causing the tinniest smile to appear on Klaus's face. Moving on from whether this was an attack on their family or not, there attention shifted back to Marcel who had still not moved even after Klaus had pulled the dagger from his back. Curiosity over taking Freya, she bent down lifting up his t-shirt revealing an open wound still slightly oozing with blood "Why isn't he healing?". The others joined their sister at ground level as they stared puzzled at Marcel's lack of healing and general unresponsiveness. Rebecca, went to get some blood to see if that would help with the boys turning him over so she could give him some of the blood, but again no response. They looked down on him confused, "Why isn't he waking up?" Rebecca asked worriedly with Klaus snapping back, "How should I know?". Freya took the dagger from the floor investigating it noticing that Marcels blood wasn't the only substance on the dagger, "There's something else on the dagger, that's why he isn't waking up. They must have put something on the blade before stabbing him". Klaus snatched the dagger from Freya's hand looking at the residue of the substance but something else caught his eye, "Your right, there is something else on there and someone else's blood too". A deathly silence fell over the room. Kol stared at Marcels body, now face up, wondering what they were up against when he saw a chain dangling from his right hand "What is that?". He then lent over to his hand pulling it open revealing a locket. His siblings watched his every move intently, as he rose up from the floor and showed his siblings Marcels hidden treasure, "Is it his attackers?" Freya questioned as Kol dangled the locket in front of them and shrugged his shoulders, "maybe?". The locket was gold and had a crest engraved on it, one they didn't recognise. "It looks familiar, but I have no idea why" they all agreed. Kol then gave the locket to Klaus who tried to forcibly open it, but upon doing so the tips of his fingers burst into flames causing him to drop the locket on the floor. "WHAT THE FUCK!" he screamed from the sudden immense pain in his fingers as he danced around trying to put the fire out. The others were reluctant to pick the locket back up, placing a cloth over it just in case. The girls prompting Kol to pick it up from the floor he scoped it up, holding the cloth in-between his skin and the locket, taking a deep breath before saying "I bet that if we find out who this locket belongs to, we'll find Elijah". The siblings all nodded in agreement as they ominously stared at the locket full of questions, not knowing the vast array of secrets the locket contained vexed them. But they were prepared to do anything to find them out.

Chapter 13

"My Locket!" Link jolted up from his bed, startling his brother awake who was in the bed next to him. Link felt around his neck for his locket, but it was gone. "What?" Hurricane groggily asked still half asleep. "My locket! It's missing!" Link began to hyperventilate knowing that his father would be disappointed in him, he had promised to keep it safe. "Where did you last see it?" his brother asked now fully awake next to him. Link leaned back against the headboard of his bed deep in thought, then the shocking revelation overcame him his face dropping like a pile of bricks. Hurricane seeing this began to worry "No Link" he pleaded with Link nodding his head, "You left it at the house? Where you killed all those vampires?" he whispered as Link gritted his teeth, "It wasn't my fault! He grabbed my-" they heard a sudden knock on the door causing them both to freeze in place. "Link, Elijah, dads got breakfast ready downstairs!" Nathan's voice echoed through the door. The boys stared at each other just wanting Nathan to go away, "Okay, we'll be there in a minute" they shouted back not sure on what to say. "Okay..." Nathans confused voice faded as he made his way back downstairs. Link quickly got changed out of his bloody clothes and into his pyjamas shoving the clothes under his bed until he could dispose of them later, "We can't tell dad, promise?" Link turned to his brother who softly smiled "I promise" and the pair slowly made their way downstairs. Without saying a word they found the rest of their family in the Kitchen enjoying their variation of breakfast and sat down next to Alpha Peter in the dining room, "You two are up late today" he commented. Link looked up at the clock on the wall it was 9am. "We were tired" Link kept it short and sweet, Nathan who was sat opposite them with a plate of pancakes was convinced that they were hiding something, seeing from their body language drastically change. "It's because they were up late last night" Elijah told Peter whilst placing a plate of pancakes in front of Hurricane Elijah, his eyes lighting up. "Were they?" Alpha Peter smiled at them, just learning about the cheekiness of his grandsons. The boys remained silent, crooked smiles resonating on both their faces which just added to Nathan's suspicion. Then Sarah and Dahlia came into the room, Sarah seemed upset about something both her cheeks and eyes burning red. "Dad, have you seen my dagger? I have one half, but I can't find the other one. I've looked everywhere" upon hearing this Link look guiltily at the floor and Hurricane stuffed his mouth full of pancakes. Elijah approached the table again placing a plate of pancakes doused in syrup in front of Link, "No, I haven't seen it anywhere" upon seeing the pancakes Link licked his lips, Sarah's lost dagger becoming an afterthought. Nathan had just finished his the last of his pancakes and volunteered to help her look for it upstairs, disappearing from the table locking eyes with Link as he made his descent upstairs. Alpha Peter turned his attention away from his book holding Dahlia's hand and turning to the boys, "You two haven't see your sister's dagger anywhere, have you? She's been looking for it all morning" with Dahlia adding, "she's really upset about it". Link choked on a bit of pancake after being asked the question and his red-haired brother quickly shook his head passing a glass of water to his choking brother with Peter subconsciously rubbing Links back. After Link had recovered and the brothers had finished their breakfasts the two rushed upstairs to discuss what they were going to do.

They made their way to their bedroom ready to think about what to do. They swung open the door finding Nathan sitting on Links bed glaring at them menacingly, "What are you two up to?" he asked them sternly. Link stepped forward trying his best to remain calm, "What are you doing in our room? We'll tell dad" trying to change the subject but Nathan just simply smiled back, "I don't think you will, you don't want dad knowing about your late night adventures" he threw Link's bloodied top at them the younger brothers looking surprised that he had found it. "But how?" Elijah mumbled. "You were both acting super suspicious, so I thought I would come and investigate. But you didn't answer my question, what where you two doing last night for that to happen?". The two brothers exchanged looks of defeat knowing that they couldn't lie to Nathan about it. "Well?" Nathan prompted Link then turned back towards him and quickly blurted out, "We went to get the phone from the place, I had the key and Elijah was my lookout, I got the phone from the safe used my magic to kill some vampires, stabbed the leader using Sarah's dagger and your special potion, came home and found out I had lost my locket". Silence echoed between the brothers as Nathan was frozen in shock. "Did we kill him?" Hurricane questioned having to poke him to get a response. Then Nathan snapped back to reality, "YOU WHAT!?" he shouted Hurricane having to put his hand over his mouth, "shush" the boys hummed. Hurricane then took his hand away from Nathans mouth, "you took Sarah's dagger and my paralytic potion?" he asked returning to his normal volume, with both boys nodding. His face then turned red as he realised what the last thing Link said was "You lost your locket? But that has our family crests on it. We need to get it back before..." he trailed off stopping himself just in time to remember that Link hadn't been told about their father's side of the family. "Before?" Link prodded, Nathan grabbed him by the shoulders looking intensely into his eyes, "We need to get your locket and Sarah's dagger back. Our family's future depends on it" he asserted making sure Link and Hurricane-Elijah knew the severity of the situation. "But before that can I have the phone please?" holding his hand out and Link fumbled getting it out of his pyjama pocket eventually getting It and passing it over to his brother. Nathan then quickly unlocked the phone, deleted the desired pictures from the cloud and placed the phone on a wooden desk and looked up grabbing a metal book end that held up his brother's spell books to smash the phone demolishing it into a million pieces so the phone could not be retrieved in anyway whatsoever, "That's done. Moving on..." he then proceeded put the book end back and walk out of the room venturing into his own. After some rummaging he appeared back into his brothers room with a compass and a spell book, a smile on his face, "I have a plan" as he placed the book and compass on the same wooden desk dusting away the phone pieces into the small trash can lingering by the side of the desk. He then open the spell book, "Were going to use a locator spell for objects. I'm going to take a drop of your blood and when I preform the spell you need to think about the object you want to find then the compass should take us right to it" Nathan explained whilst reading the spell one last time. Link nodded holding his palm out towards Nathan who grabbed his hand a gently pulled it closer to him, taking a needle that he had borrowed from his sowing kit and pricking Link with it, where a drop of blood escaped from his body. Nathan then took the blood and placed it on the compass, "Remember to think about the locket" and Link nodded. Confident that his brother knew what to do Nathan began to perform the spell his eyes turning as white as freshly fallen snow as he did. Link did what he was told and closed his eyes picturing the locket. Hurricane Elijah watched from the sides as the compass's needle began to spin around uncontrollably and an icy chill ram down his spine. He watched the needle spin faster and faster the further Nathan got to completing the spell, but as soon as he did the needled began to slow down until it pointed in the direction north-west. Link opened his eyes wondering if the spell had worked, but instead saw Nathan's nose dribbling black blood and him clutching at his head, "are you okay Nathan?" he asked worriedly seeing his brother in pain. Nathan's eyes faded back to his normal hazel brown, and he smiled, "Yes, it's just my horns getting ready to come through, I shouldn't really be using my magic that's all, little bro" he winked at his little brother reaching over to hug him as Link face looked riddled with fear. After they made sure they were all okay they turned their attention back to the compass, "Did it work?" Hurricane asked looking down at the compass, Link and Nathan joined him seeing the compass pointing north-west, "there's only one way to find out" the three brothers shared an ominous smirk as Nathan picked up the compass and pointed it towards the open window. They three of them went to the window when Nathan stopped Elijah grabbing him by the shoulder, "You can't come". Hurricane looked offended "why?" Nathan then let go of his shoulder, "You cave under pressure, especially with dad. This is too important, I'm sorry" he told him feeling guilty but knowing it was for the best and Hurricane deep down knew this too. Nathan gently smiled at him, "besides, we're going to need an amazing lookout whilst we're gone. You up for it?" Elijah cheered up a little and nodded back. Satisfied Nathan turned his attention back to Link, "do you still have my walkie talkie and earpiece? Just in case" he asked him, and Link went over to his chest of draws opening the top one retrieving the items assuring Nathan "I was going to give it back" before placing it in Nathans hands. Nathan and Link then headed to the window and began to make there decent to the ground, "if anyone asks where we are, we're still looking for Sarah's dagger, okay?" Nathan told Hurricane there cover story to which he nodded. "We won't be long," Nathan assured him as he climbed out the window joining Link and slowly evaporated into the vast woodland determined to eliminate any trace that linked there two feuding families.

After successfully escaping out of pack territory unseen, the brothers began to follow the compass needle into town, getting a few odd looks in the process. Nathan led the way, holding both he compass and Link's hand as they swerved their way through the large city crowds watching intensely for the slightest change in the direction of the needle. Nathan began to suspect where they were going, their surroundings becoming more familiar by the second. The brothers coming out of the busy city emerging to more secluded city outskirts. After about 5 minutes they had reached their destination and Nathans suspicions were confirmed, the locket was inside the Mikaelson house. Nathan knew they where treading in deep water in being there, but the safety of their family hung in the balance and that was far more important then being caught. Nathan looked around for an access point seeing an open window on the right side of the house. "There." He pointed to the open window with Link following his gaze "How am I going to get up there?" Nathan mumbled. Link noticed that side of the house

Link began to climb the grate up to the window, his feet, and fingers small enough to fit through the holes as ascended to the open window climbing through it. Once he was in, he held out the compass following the direction of the needle which was pointing downstairs. Before blindly following it, he listened to see if anyone was inside the house when he heard water running from the room next door with an angelic humming accompanying it, a woman was in the shower. Link then turned to a candle lighting it up a fierce lime green confirming that she was the only one in the house. With this confirmed Link used his vampire speed to rush downstairs making as little noise as possible. Following the compass that led him to the dinning room table, where in the centre was his locket and Sarah's dagger. Whilst this was happening, Nathan was waiting helplessly outside keeping a look out for any Mikaelson's on their way to the house hiding out of sight in a nearby bush. Then he felt something coming as multiple gusts of wind flew past him, seeing two blurs darted past him, it was them. Nathan began to panic knowing Link was still inside he grabbed his walkie-talkie to try and warn him, but the batteries were dead "Damn it" he whispered looking up at the window lost on what do, dreading what they would do to Link if they found him inside. Back inside the house, Link had placed the locket back around his neck and went to grab the dagger when he heard the front door rattling. He quickly grabbed the dagger dashing to the next room to detection as they entered the house. Link stuffed himself in a corner, trying to remain deathly silent as he listened to them come in and go straight into the dining room, "Where is the locket?" Link heard one of the men say, recognising the voice as the man that shouted at him and Hurricane. Link continued to listen, "I left it right there!" the other defended himself. He then listened as it became a heated argument "we'll it's not there now is it, Kol?" the other one was caught off guard. Link then heard the woman who was in the shower come slowly down the stairs, her using a towel to dry her hair, "what happened?" as she joined her brothers in the dining room. Link seizing his opportunity began to slowly retreat to the staircase. He was getting ready to make a dash upstairs but before he could he heard the siblings converse "How are we going to find Elijah without the locket?" "I'm sure the lockets here somewhere". This filled Link with questions like who was this Elijah they were looking for? And why did they need his locket to find him? But he couldn't stick around to find out taking the opportunity to dash back upstairs going back to the room with the open window placing the dagger hilt in his mouth as he climbed back down the grate, making it back outside safety and removing the dagger from his mouth. He was then bombarded from hugs from Nathan, "I tried to warn you, but the walkie-talkie died". Link swatted him away assuring him he was okay and the pair quickly made there escape back to the pack. Whilst the Mikaelson siblings frantically searched for the locket everywhere but to no avail. Klaus' anger and frustration taking over him informing his siblings, "I need to go kill something!" before disappearing leaving an empty silence in his wake.

Soon after, Nathan and Link arrived back at the pack coming through the front door to make it seem like they were outside looking for the dagger. The brothers tried to be as inconspicuous as possible Nathan hiding the dagger in his jacket sleeve as they quietly walked past the living room hoping that the adults in the family would just assume they were outside looking for the dagger. "Where have you two been?" their father asked them seeing them from the kitchen as he washed the dishes. Link gulped trying to hide behind Nathan, when Hurricane-Elijah, taking his role of lookout seriously stepped in "they were looking for Sarah's dagger outside. I forgot I was meant to tell you". Elijah bought into it as Nathan knew he would, he then turned back to Nathan and Link, "Did you find it?" to which the brothers shook their heads trying their best to look upset. "That's a shame we've looked everywhere" the familiar voice of their uncle Ash appeared from the back door. "I promised you a game when we got back, didn't I Link?" Nathan tried to think of an excuse to escape and with some prodding from Nathan Link got the message and agreed "Come on Elijah you can play too" ushering his brother to follow them upstairs, which he was far more receptive of then Link was following them upstairs. The trio then contained their emotions until they reached Link and Elijah's bedroom. They all then let out a huge sigh of relief as Nathan removed the dagger from his sleeve revealing it to his brothers, "You did it!" Hurricane proclaimed failing to control the volume of his voice. "Shush!" Nathan and Link ushered. Luckily no one heard him "what are you going to do about the blood?" Elijah asked noticing the blade still having some blood residue on it. The trio then went to the bathroom washing off as much blood as possible before dousing with bleach, causing them all to violently cough. But after a good five minutes the dagger looked as good as new. They then opened the window fully to let in as much fresh air as possible before retreating back to Link and Elijah's room, "Now what?" Link wondered. Nathan smirked back at his little brother, "Now it's time for some acting". The brothers watched Nathan intrigued as he walked out the room onto the landing turning back seeing his little brothers perplexed faces and winked at them before shouting at the top of his lungs, "I FOUND IT!" his voice bouncing off all the walls in the house. As he suspected within seconds Sarah zoomed up the stairs full of excitement inspecting the dagger confirming it to be hers and hugged her brother. The adults in the house converged at the bottom of the stairs glad that they could finally stop looking for the dagger. "Where did you find it?" she asked overwhelmed with excitement finally letting go of Nathan allowing him to breath. "It was on top of your cupboard." Nathan replied, Sarah looked back at him perplexed, "I thought I looked there". Nathan not wanting her to jump to any conclusions, "You probably didn't see it, it was hidden right at the back some books had fallen in front of it". Sarah bought the story as finding homes for her books was still on her to do list. Nathan watched her nose twitch as she smelt something different about the blade. Lifting the dagger up to her nose she smelt the putrid smell of bleach drenched all over it, Sarah looked back at Nathan wanting an explanation but he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Sarah wanted to question him about it but before she could, they heard Ash bellow, "Sarah, now that you've found your daggers do you want to do some weapons training with me and Athena?... the boys can come too!" Sarah thought about it for a second but with her brothers approval she shouted back "Okay! That sounds fun". Sarah grabbed the over half of her butterfly daggers and the four of them headed outside to spend some time with their uncle.

Chapter 14

As the four children made their way outside the boys were slightly ahead of Sarah trying to avoid any questions about what had happened. Sarah wasn't convinced and used her vampire speed to catch up to Nathan pulling him back from their little brothers slightly so the pair could talk. "Why does my dagger wreak of bleach?" she whispered into Nathans ear, "I don't know what your on about". Sarah rolled her eyes jolting his whole body back "I'm not stupid, Nathan. Don't treat me like I am. What did you do?". Nathan knew he couldn't hide it from her any longer as he sighed leaning into her ear so no one else could hear "Link kinda snuck into the vampires place last night to get the phone back. He kinda sorta used your dagger and my paralytic potion to stab their leader. We had to clean it to cover ourselves, that's why you can smell bleach". Sarah was left speechless not believing what she was hearing "HE WHAT!" she eventually got out. Luckily no one was in hearing distance. "Shush! It's a secret" Nathan condemned her with Sarah rolling her eyes back at him "How did you get it back?" she asked noticing by the poignant smell of the bleach that it was fresh. The pair reached the arena which the pack utilised as a training ground drawing Nathan and Sarah to a halt. Nathan then leaned into Sarah "Trust me, you don't want to know". From this response Sarah could only presume it was someway extremely dangerous, which filled her with both worry and Jealousy whispering to her brother "where was my invite?". Nathan chuckled shaking his head at his sister being interrupted by Link "It's her" a menacing tone in his voice. Nathan looked over where Link was staring finding Athena, "You really don't like Thea do you?" Link was stunned by his brothers insolence "she tried to steal dad" Link tried to convince him. But Nathan just laughed "I'm sure were cousins" which caught Link off guard, he despised her he didn't want to be related to her. Nathan had made an educated guess judging by Theas age that Klaus was the father he was the only man she was seeing around that time. Before they could talk any further Ash interrupted them "Okay kids, were going to break into pairs for some 1v1 training". For the first time since getting to the arena Nathan looked up fully taking in his surroundings. Including him and his siblings there were four other kids there as well, all of them were slightly older than him and Sarah, Caleb being one of them. They then branched out into pairs the older kids picking each other so very unoriginally Nathan went with Sarah, leaving Link, Hurricane and Athena as a trio which Thea was really excited about. Ash seeing the odd number of children went over to the trio asking "Does one of you want to be my assistant?" knowing that Thea had been itching for a challenge and Link being her cousin was the perfect solution. Link secretly reached his arm behind Thea and pushed her back in an attempt to get rid of her so Link and Hurricane could be a pair on their own. This didn't work as Ash picked Hurricane instead, Link's worst nightmare coming true as he was stuck paired with Thea. In complete contrast Thea was thrilled, she had found out that Link was a strong vampire from her mother so she wouldn't have to worry about holding back, she couldn't help but find the prospect exhilarating.

The two mostly evenly matched struggled to advance on the other. Completely ditching their daggers the they were punching at air as both blocked each others advances with complete ease. Thea was having the time of her life completely oblivious that Link was no longer playing the game as the two wrestled on the floor. Link wanted nothing more than to wipe that dad stealing smile off her face, he despised her that much. Ash had just finished giving Caleb and his partner some advise when he heard the squabbling of Link and Athena. The pair had grown bored of not winning so were throwing each other around in the mud with extreme force. Ash rushed over to them "Cut it out, you two" trying to pull them apart but Link knocked him unconscious with his magic. Thea wanting to desperately win, instinctively retracted her fangs and went after Link filled with desire to bite him. Link felt the same instinct within him, but his fangs had yet come through. Instead, timing it just right to grab her wrists mid attempt at biting him, which he succeeded. But now restrained she forcibly imbedded her nails into his wrists hard enough to draw blood scrapping them as far up his wrists as she could reach. Nathan tried to stop them seeing the blood oozing from Link's wrists but they weren't listening. Link felt the pain ease as his wounds began to heal and retaliated using his magic to burn Thea's wrists causing Thea to scream. Both in pain they both collectively shouting for their parents in unison "MUM!" "DAD!" as Elijah and Claire sprinted over tearing the two of them apart. After successfully pulling Link away Elijah saw the blood on his sleeves "What happened?". Link didn't dare take his eyes off Thea screaming "SHE STARTED IT!" and Thea snapped back defending herself "DID NOT!". "She tried to bite me with her fangs!" to which Thea tried to deny but caught herself, knowing that it wasn't good to lie. "Is this true, Athena?" Claire questioned her Thea sensing the seriousness in her mothers voice, "Yes... but he burnt my hands!". "Only because you scratched me!" Link fired back with Thea poking her tongue out at him. "Thea enough!" Claire commanded, Thea looking guiltily up at her mother. The situation seeming to simmer down, Claire checked Thea's wrist were fully healed before mouthing "I'm soo sorry" to Elijah across the arena grabbing Thea and gently dragging her away telling her some stern words as she did. Elijah then brought Link inside of the pack house to discuss less publicly about what happened, Nathan, Sarah and Hurricane following behind them.

Checking that aunt Dahlia wasn't lurking about Elijah turned to Link where he calmly asked him "what were you thinking, son?". Link didn't answer looking down at the floor before Link looked back up at his father "we were just playing, then she went to bite me". Elijah wasn't convinced looking at him soaked in dirt, not an inch of him was spared from mud "Seems a bit boisterous for just a game. Is their perhaps another reason you're acting this way?". Link became flustered, his cheeks glowing red as an awkward silence lingered in the room. Nathan had felt partly responsible for what had happened, he knew Link despised Thea and he had failed to intervene when they were paired together "It's my fault. I knew Link didn't like Thea. I should have stopped them being paired together" he omitted. "NATHAN!" Link groaned. Elijah sighed "I see. But son, you and Athena are cousins. That means your family." Link was confused "we are?" to which Elijah softly nodded "Yes you are and we don't hurt family-" he stopped himself not wanting to be a hypocrite "unless its absolutely necessary". "But dad..." Link whined, Elijah giving him a piercing glare "Link, Thea is part of this family. You will treat her as such". Link looked at his siblings for back up but didn't receive any turning back to his father admitting defeat "okay dad". Elijah smiled warmly back at him "Ill tell you what if you go get cleaned up now, we can go out for a surprise tomorrow". This peeked the children's interests "Surprise?!" they all shouted seemingly in unison. Elijah nodded and the children pushed Link upstairs to the bathroom to get him cleaned up, by force if they had to.

About an hour later Link was out the bath and squeaky clean with not an ounce of mud or blood on him. The family were all gathered in the lounge with the four children trying to work out what the mystery surprise was "Is mum coming home?" Link asked with Elijah not lifting his head up from the book he was reading "no". "Is it a new spell book or alchemy set?" "...Or a new set of daggers?!" Nathan and Sarah guessed pressing their father for an answer. This made Elijah look up from his book "You don't need any more spell books or weapons". "An alchemy set?..." Nathan prompted receiving a cold glare from his father, a firm no. Knock knock sounded at the door. Elijah got up from where he was sitting and went to answer the door but before he did he turned the children "I can assure you it's none of those things. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out". He then darted off to the front door and was surprised to see Athena and Claire waiting on the porch outside. Thea's face plastered with misery as her mother stood behind her with her hands on Thea's shoulders preventing her escape "Thea has something she was wants to say to Link". To which she gave her mother a piercing glare but Claire paid her no notice pushing her inside the pack house as soon as Elijah let them in. "You don't have to knock" Elijah told Claire as the three of them made their way to the lounge. Link immediately put his guard up upon seeing his cousin, ready for round two he stared at her prepared for her next attack. "Link, Thea has something she wants to say to you" Elijah told him trying to ease the tension between the pair. An awkward silence lingered as Athena and Link engaged in an intense staring contest, both exchanging menacing glares before Claire had enough "Athena". Thea looked away admitting defeat as she huffed "I'm sorry" "for?" Claire prompted her trying to get her to learn the difference between a real apology and a fake one. "I'm sorry for trying to bite you and scratching you" she finished leaving Claire satisfied. Elijah knowing that Thea wasn't the only one in the wrong turned to Link "Son, anything you want to say to Thea?" receiving a menacing glare back from Link. Although Link didn't really want to he apologised to Athena "I'm sorry for burning you". With the tension in the room dying down Claire and Thea made their exit, Elijah following close behind them stopping them at the door "I'm taking the children out tomorrow, would Thea like to come?". Athena was still his niece and he thought it would be good to include her in their family activity, hoping that her and Link would bond so what happened today wouldn't happen again. Clearly, they were both on the same page as Claire agreed without even knowing where they were going. The girls then left just as Ash staggered his way home after waking up from being knocked out "what happened?" he asked Claire grasping at his head Claire turned to Ash filling him in "Thea and Link had a fight. But there fine now". Claire and Thea continued home as Ash sluggishly made his way inside the pack house, the doppelgangers making it to the lounge where Link asked the fatal question that Elijah wasn't ready for.

"Dad, how are me and Athena cousins?"

Chapter 15

The birds sang harmoniously welcoming in a new weekend. The suns rays trickled down on the pack below adding to the glorious morning. The children were getting ready for a surprise, a surprise that their dad had kept from them but assured them they would enjoy. After a narrow escape with Link yesterday, Elijah was Downstairs ready to leave he had been ushering the children to get ready for over an hour. The surprise was that he was taking them to a youth centre, which he hoped would give them a chance to embrace being children and have fun, fearing that by hiding them away so young he had forced them to grow up too fast. He also thought it would be a good idea for them to see and interact with children the same age as them, and the possibility of them making new friends was an exciting prospect. "There going to love it" Dahlia smiled in the door way, being the one to tell him where it was in the first place. Elijah smiling gently back trying not talk too much to her as he still wasn't comfortable being himself around her. Alpha Peter then appeared next to her passing her a cup of coffee and wrapping his arm around her, kissing her gently on the cheek as he did, "There going to be so excited, son. It will be a good experience for them". All of a sudden Claire came into the house with Thea drooping along behind her "Mum, do I have to go?". Claire then turned back to Thea bending down to her level, placing her white hair behind her ears, "Yes honey, you have to go. It will be fun and you'll get to spend time with the boys and your sister". Thea didn't look convinced whining "but mum...." to which Claire cut her off "Sweetheart, you'll be fine. Promise me to be good for uncle Raven." Thea sighed seeing no way out of going but seeing as she wanted to spend more time with her family, she promised her mother she would behave. Claire then kissed her on the head telling her, "I love you" and the mother and daughter hugged each other. Claire then turned to leave being responsible for the delivery of healing potions to Kora and the high witch council, but before she did she quickly turned to Elijah, "Thank you for taking her, she's hasn't stopped talking about it all morning.". Elijah grinned back at her, "It's okay, she's my niece after all" Claire smiled back and knowing Thea was in good hands left to make her deliveries. Soon afterwards the rest of the children made their way downstairs ready for the surprise, but Link's excitement drifted away upon seeing Thea being replaced with a scornful look, "why is SHE here?" he asked his father. "Son, remember what we talked about yesterday. Thea is family and will be treated as such" Elijah told him trying to get Link to recall there conversation about being more considerate about other peoples feelings. After checking the six of them were ready they slowly began their decent into the city for what Elijah hoped would be a world changing experience, looking forward to seeing the children let go and have fun without the pressures of their current situation weighing down on them.

As they made their way to the youth centre Link's dislike of Thea only grew, he was full of jealousy as Thea was holding his dad's hand. He didn't like it, he was his dad not hers. He then felt something hit his shoulder causing him to lose his trail of thought. Link turned to the point of contact and saw Nathan shaking his head at him, "Link, you have your 'I want to kill you face' on" he informed him with Link looking back at him offended, "I do not have a 'I want to kill you face'". "You so do" Hurricane teased with Nathan smiling back at his little brothers. Link just shook his head in disbelief at his brothers ganging up on him but eventually let it go rolling his eyes and laughing with them, doing his best to ignore his feelings of despisal for his cousin. Thankfully, he didn't need to do this for long as shortly afterwards they arrived at their destination. They arrived at a big building, hearing the excited shrieks of children coming from inside. The party of six made their way inside the building Elijah inviting the girls in and once inside they saw a plethora of children climbing frames and jungle gyms spread over the huge hall. "It's official I'm dead" Nathan mumbled under his breath with his brothers looking up at him in disbelief, not understand his reaction when there was so much fun to be had. Ignoring his brothers distain Link turned to his dad full of excitement, "Can we go play now?". Elijah smiled and bent down seeing the three five-year-olds full of joy itching to let their energy free, "Okay. But no biting, no fangs, no magic, and no associated abilities.". The trio violently nodded wanting to go and play, "go on then, I'll be just outside" he then watched as the three of them rushed into the jungle gym to go and play leaving just Sarah and Nathan standing next to him. Sarah seeing a girl roughly the same age as her sitting stuffed at a table all by herself, went to investigate leaving Nathan and Elijah standing at the entrance of the jungle gym trying to catch a glimpse of the mini's. Elijah seeing Nathan glued to his side asked him "What are you doing?". Nathan pretended to ignore his father knowing he would make him go and make friends. "Nathan" Elijah prompted knowing why he was ignoring him, Nathan then sighed turning towards him. "This place is filled with snot-nosed brats and juvenile delinquents, I don't feel that it's safe for my little brothers". This caused Elijah to chuckle, "Says the boy who snuck out a few nights ago" Nathan gave his father a menacing glare "I'm watching my brothers". Elijah shook his head softly, "I'm watching them. You need to be over there with your sister" he paused as the pair looked over at Sarah who was talking and laughing with a red-haired girl, "she looks like she's enjoying herself". Nathan sighed not being able to dispute the fact that Sarah was indeed having fun. Elijah then tempted him with something he knew he couldn't resist ice cream "We can go get ice cream afterwards". This caused Nathan to perk up, "only if I can get an extra scoop" bargaining with his father. A small smile appeared on Elijah's face "You drive a hard bargain, but I think that can be arranged" he teased, seeing Nathan still hesitant to leave his fathers side, "Go before I change my mind" he shewed him away and Nathan reluctantly walked over to Sarah past the crowds of roaring children to a more secluded table tucked into the corner of the room. Nathan arrived at the table standing next to his sister, Sarah moved up the bench allowing him to sit down, "Olivia this is my brother Nathan". Nathan then looked opposite him across the table seeing a girl with long red hair and bright blue eyes about the same age as them she smiled back at him, "Hi" and Nathan was stumped on what to do next the lack of human interaction weighing against him. "Is he okay?" Olivia whispered to Sarah and Sarah embarrassed by her brother's reaction, "We don't get out much" she joked trying to make light of the situation having to hit his arm for him to respond. Only then did he stick out his hand "I'm Nathan" and Olivia finding it amusing played along and shook his hand, "Olivia". With the pleasantries out the way the trio engaged in friendly conversation. "What's with the suit?" there new friend asked causing both Nathan and Sarah to gulp. Nathan wasn't going to tell a stranger their past so told her the white lie of, "I like to think it makes me look unpredictable, like my enemies wouldn't cross me kinda unpredictable, you know". Sarah rolled her eyes fully expecting Olivia to run. But instead seemed even more captivated than before leaning in closer, "you have enemies?" she said almost excitably. Sarah then moved her right arm accidently exposing her wrist and her number to Olivia, where the sudden composition between her number and skin caught Olivia's eye, "Your pit wolves?!". Sarah retracted her arm putting her coat back on, "Pit wolves? Is that what there calling the pack now?" she questioned with the two siblings looking offended. "Well, that's what my family call you. Although me and my mum don't really talk to them anymore just my Uncle Lobo" Olivia informed them, the name sounded familiar but both Nathan and Sarah didn't quite know why. But before they could question it any further, Nathan glanced back over to the jungle gym seeing his little brother Elijah crying in their fathers' arms, "Why is Elijah crying?!". He then got up from the table ignoring the girls and stormed across the room determined to curse the person who had made his little brother cry. "What happened? Why is Elijah crying? Tell me who I have to curse!" Nathan reached the rest of his family, demanding answers from his father. Elijah released Hurricane from a hug and turned towards Nathan, "You don't have to curse anyone, son. Elijah got a bit overwhelmed with all the loud noises and people around that's all" hearing this Nathan relaxed understanding why he was upset. The family was reunited once with Sarah following Nathan across the room and Thea and Link appearing from behind Elijah with them also feeling the pressures of the loud environment. Elijah made the decision to leave the centre early and go treat the children to ice cream to cheer them up.

Once it was confirmed the little ones were okay, they left the hall leaving the blazing heat and echoes of shrieking children behind them. The refreshing fall breeze brushing against their faces, giving them the freedom they so desperately desired. Sarah was a little disappointed that she didn't get Olivia's number but her family came first no matter what. The family of six then slowly began to make their way to the diner when they heard a woman's voice shout, "Excuse me!". Elijah holding Hurricanes hand turned around seeing a woman he guessed in her early 30's, with fiery red hair and deep blue eyes waving him down "Can I help you?". The woman caught up with him with her daughter standing back. "Yes, you can..." she paused getting her breath back. Sarah recognising Olivia waved at her, Elijah looked at the woman perplexed. "My daughters a bit shy, but she was hoping to get your two eldest phone numbers. She doesn't have many friends you see" "MUM!" Olivia shouted. Whilst, Nathan pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, writing their numbers on the sheet. The woman then looked the children up and down noticing Hurricanes distinctive red hair "You know, he looks just like my cousin when he was his age. The resemblance is uncanny" she told Elijah with alarm bells starting to go off in his head, they were part of the Blood family. Elijah was lost in a trance not hearing, "Are they all yours?". Link looked up at his father wanting to leave pulling at his dads sleeve, awaking him from the trance. "I'm sorry what?" he asked. "Are the kids yours?" she repeated. Elijah looked at five children, at their family not wanting anything to change, which it would if his suspicions of Hurricane being a Blood were confirmed. "Yes, these four are mine and Thea here is my niece" he told her to try and speed up the conversation. But it only made it drag on even further, "It must be so hard being a single father of four young children" Elijah had no idea what was going on about. Thea being five had no filter, "But, my mum and uncles help and the rest of the pack too". The others couldn't believe what had just come out of her mouth, Olivia's mother looked back at them shocked "Your Pit wolves?". Elijah was left flustered and confused "Pit wolves?" but was told by Nathan "It's what outsiders call the pack, apparently". "Then yes, we are" Elijah turned back to her but Thea was confused "But uncle Raven, mum says your a-" Sarah covered her sisters mouth cutting her off "witch. Dads a witch" the comment causing Thea to frown. "Your a witch and a wolf? How interesting, your just like my uncle Lobo." Olivia's mother smiled this confirming that Elijah's inhibition was correct and they were indeed part of the Blood family. "I'm a stalemate wolf, I'm really just a witch" he said taking the piece of paper that Nathan and Sarah had written their numbers on and passed it to her. Seeing Olivia's mother lost in thought Elijah tried to sneak away. "Listen, there is a witch meeting sometime next week. You and the children should come get to know the witch community, give you some magic tips." She stopped them Elijah rolling his eyes "Thank you, but..." "It would be for the children too, magic is so unpredictable at their age they need to be able to control it" She then got out her phone from her handbag and asked Elijah for his number, which he was surprised he remembered off the top of his head. He could tell the children were getting restless and were bored so he leaned in closer to the woman compelling her. "What's your name?" he asked and in her compelled state immediately replied, "Jennifer". "Jennifer. I want you to take your daughter home and leave me and my family alone for a while so we can enjoy some ice-cream" He then turned around holding Thea and Hurricane hands and simply walked off with the rest of the family tailing behind him. The three five year olds were amazed by what they just witnessed, "Dad that was awesome!" "Can you teach me to do that?" "You just made someone do what you said!" were only some of the questions and responses fired by the children on there way to the diner. "Listen children, compelling isn't to be taken lightly. You're taking away someone's free will". "Free will is an illusion" Nathan commented causing Elijah to bite his tongue, "Were not having that conversation again, son" shutting him down straight away, a cheeky smile appearing on both their faces. Shortly afterwards they arrived at the diner ready for some well-deserved ice cream.

The family entered the diner sitting in a round booth ready to enjoy some down time away from the buzzing city life. They all ordered an array of sweet sensations with the exception of Hurricane needing more sustenance being the only one of them technically alive had a burger. Elijah was glad that the children had brightened up a bit after what was meant to be a family activity turned sour. As the waitress returned with their food, Sarah and Nathan received a message from Olivia, their new friend. Elijah wasn't sure how he felt about it as he was happy that the Day for not all for nought but them being Bloods worried him. "Dad! Your ice cream it's melting" Link chuckled as he pointed to the top of the ice cream slowly deflating along with the melted residue around the bowl. Elijah looked down at and noticing this for himself as he begun eating his sweet treat. The atmosphere soon lit up with everyone laughing and enjoying themselves even Thea and Link which had surprised him considering their abrasions the previous day. He then felt a buzzing sensation in his pocket, someone was calling him. He retrieved the phone that was deep inside his pocket and was shocked to see who it was fully expecting it to be one of the pack or even Jennifer. He picked up the phone, "Serena?" causing Link and Nathan to look over with huge grins plastered on their faces. "Is it mum?" Link whispered to his brother across the table trying to contain his excitement but failing miserably. Elijah had to shush him to hear her but pulled the way from his ear covering the phone with his hand "Your mother says that she loves you and that she and your aunt and uncle are coming home to the pack soon". This caused Link to explode with happiness, he had yet to physically meet his mother, only seeing her and the rest of their family through video calls. "That's amazing!" Link shouted full of excitement with Hurricane hitting him on the arm getting him to calm down a tiny bit. "Mums coming home" Nathan smiled across the table him and Link locking eyes relishing in the news that their family were going to be together once more.