Song is Broken Record by Krewella. The photo is the Dinner Party. Actually not really because the dinner party in this chapter has no one from this picture lmao.
The shower hurt. It washed away the blood, and dirt. The bite on my throat ached, but the spell or whatever it was that Cain did cleared my airways. I could speak, but it hurt to do that too. When I stepped out and dried off, the mirror grabbed my attention. The stars were littered all over my neck and collar bones. Some were mangled looking or disappeared entirely from the stitches and the bite on my neck. It had turned into a nasty rash, but my skin wasn't feverish after a cold shower. I hadn't begun to hallucinate so that was something.
I dress slowly. Jeans and a fresh tee shirt. Black, in case I had to kill someone... again. Though I hoped not because my shoulder was killing me. I grab the sword off my bed, and rinse it in the water. The bone was a variety of colors, and was smooth. It's energy was real this time. I hide it under my mattress before leaving the room, walking down the wall and rubbing my shoulder which ached.
The stitches held, but all it did was stop the bleeding, my muscle was torn and my collar bone still felt like someone broke it. When I made it into the main room, only Kol and Cain were there. Kol was flipping through something like looked like a grimoire and Cain was on the balcony, his back facing me. The glass doors were shut behind him, yet as though he sensed my presence, his shoulders tense.
"I'm ordering Pizza." I announce to Kol, who looks up from his book to see me. I grab my phone from the coffee table, guessing someone put it there earlier when I was too focused on the pain and blood to realize it. "Italy's the best place to order pizza. After all-"
"Don't start." Kol cuts me off, his eyes back in his book. I frown.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." I plop down on the cushion beside him. Then regretted it immediately because it sent pain down my arm. I slowly got back up to my feet. It didn't hurt as much when I stood up. "What's wrong with you?" My blunt question is met with a hostile gaze. Then it dissipates into indifference.
"Nothing. Just not in the mood for your history lessons, we all know Pizza has Italian roots." He mutters, signaling an end to the conversation. Clearly, he was upset with me. I didn't realize with what, but figured he'd soon get over it. Kol was one of my best friends. It wasn't a matter of if he'd get over it, but when. "I hope he's not staying for dinner." The Original Vampire gestures to the balcony, where Cain stood in the same position as when I first spotted him. "I hear demons have bad table manners." He adds with a small smirk. I roll my eyes.
Before I can reply there's arguing and then the elevator slides open and Bastian enters, Francis in tow behind him. My eyes widen, meeting the dark blue ones of my little brother. Francis huffs dramatically, like a child who was dragged to a family reunion. The analogy was quite correct, actually. "How's your shoulder?" Bash asks me, his tone going from a heated argument to brotherly concern in less than a second.
"Peachy." I wave at him dismissively, then add. "What's Francis doing here?" My voice casual, though I didn't like the tension in the room because of our unexpected Guest.
"You left me downstairs, Bastian." The elevator dings, and opens to reveal Barbie Mikaelson. Kol looks up when the bitchy voice and a grin splits open his face. He jumps up to give his sister a hug. Francis rolls his eyes, though he seemed more relaxed upon Rebekah's appearance. I look at my older brother, who's hair was growing long and some strands were in his face. I throw my hands up, giving him a look. He was smiling and just shrugged at me. I groaned internally, thinking that the balcony looked inviting right about now.
Rebekah holds up a bottle of wine. "It's from 1919." She exclaims excitedly. I pinch the bridge of my nose.
"Bloody hell." I tap the call button and toss the phone to Bastian as the guy from the Pizza Delivery place picks up. He catches it and holds it to his ear, ordering swiftly. It was a few hours until dark, but if you had dinner early you could go out and party later. Something I picked up swiftly from an old friend.
When my older brother is finished he tosses it back to me across the room. "Forty-five minutes." He says, not bothering to raise his voice over the conversation the Mikaelson siblings and Francis was having. I could hear him just fine. I give a curt nod, and Rebekah flies over to me.
"Kol says Cain's joining us for dinner?" She rose an eyebrow at me. I pull her into a hug.
"Good to see you to." I say, pulling away. She crosses her arms. "No. I'm going to tie him up and torture him until he takes this bloody thing off my arm, and then I'm going to kill him." I pause, my face straight. "Before the pizza gets here."
"I find it amusing, your conviction." Cain's voice reaches our ears and we both turn. The corners of his mouth twitched, and he didn't even look at Rebekah. "Of course, that is all fine and dandy, but it may prove to be difficult with a torn trapezius and werewolf venom spiking your veins." As though this was a reminder, Rebekah grabbed something from her pocket, holding it up.
"I keep vials of Nik's blood." She says. I grab it, and down it like a shot, sharing a smile with the sister and then turning back to the demon.
"You were saying?"
---
"If you told me a month ago I'd be tied up in Italy by Merida Helena Blair Athol Nic'Casket Cipriano Lemaire the Princeps autem inferos, I'd of laughed in your face and slit your throat." Cain says, seemingly bored while he talks of murder. Never have I seen someone so emotionless. Though he wasn't tied up. We were sitting at the dining table. He was handcuffed to the chair. The rest of us sat around the table.
"Is that really your entire name?" Rebekah asks, looking at me with wide eyes. I nod.
"Cipriano was Simons last name, which I took when we wed, and then Lemaire was Raphael's last name when we wed." I explain. "I married my way into both Italy and France. It was England that I annexed." I add, and Rebekah nods, seemingly proud.
"I'd congratulate you, but it's several centuries too late." She says with a sarcastic smile. I mirror it, touching my chest as though her words touched my heart.
"Awe, you're so sweet." I bat my eyelashes in faux gratefulness. "Though I turned my first husband into a vampire and killed the second in cold blood." I let my hand drop, almost forgetting about Cain. "I guess I killed them both, to be specific."
"Now we know where King Henry-"
"Pardon my interrupting, but listening to you two reminiscing about the 12th century is torture enough." The demon says, and Kol chuckles.
"Actually, I rather miss the 12th Century." Sebastian speaks up, only because he knew now that it was annoying Cain. Though I figured it wasn't. He didn't seem to really care about anything. Whatever he said was an act now. "We would all sit down, every night." He looks at me and then at Francis. "With our functioning dysfunctional family." He takes a bite of his pizza.
"I remember." Francis chimes in. He wasn't exactly in the mood to speak to me, but his goal to annoy Cain seemed to outweigh that. In fact, I'm sure the entire table was now focusing our efforts on that specific task if only to avoid drawing attention to the tension between us. "The Shamed Princess, Penelope. The Noble Knight, Sebastian. The Naive Follower, myself. The Bastard Embarrassment, Merida." Francis finishes, and I look at my plate, grinding my teeth together. I changed my mind. He was using it as an excuse to let out some of that anger he had towards me.
Fine. Maybe when he's got it all out of his system, he'll realize that eternity sucks without family and come crying back to me.
"I think Naive Follower is too light of a label." Cain speaks up. "After all, it took you what? A thousand years, to learn that Merida was the one who killed your Mother?" He asks, innocently looking at my little brother. "When Sebastian learned within a hundred years of it happening. I'd say Ignorant Miscreant is a far better definition." Francis looked at him evenly. Dark blue eyes meeting fiery ones that seemed to crackle and glow like fire in his eyes. Literally.
"Not to play Devil's advocate, but it took me that exact amount of time to learn Nik killed our mother." Rebekah says quickly, trying to calm the situation before someone flipped the table.
"It didn't take Elijah that long to figure it out himself as well." Kol chimes in as well, backing up his sister.
"What is it about children born out of wedlock that makes us want to kill parents, or guardians?" I pose the question, feeling eyes land on me. Something I was use to, and didn't feel discomfort about. I was a Queen, people were staring all the time. I could see my older brother trying to hold in a laugh.
"That was so archaic, it was beautiful." Bash says, amusement glittering all over his features as he takes another bite of pizza.
"I find most vampires repulsive and scoundrels, but you lot could actually be held to a higher standard." The demon at the table says, the only one without pizza on his plate. "I suppose when you're immortal, and cheat death as many times as you all have, morals become important." His hell accent was something I had grown accustomed to, but I can tell from the look on the other's faces they didn't seem to pinpoint it yet.
"'Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me; the carriage held but just ourselves, and immortality.'" Sebastian quotes and I smile slightly.
"Are you really quoting Dickinson?" I ask, though it was rhetorical.
"Says the girl who quotes Shakespeare in her sleep." Rebekah answers, smiling sheepishly.
"Et tu, Brute?" I gasp, and there's chuckling all around the table. I sip the wine from my glass, and meet Francis's crinkled eyes across the table. He keeps my gaze, sighs deeply, and gives me a small nod. Enough for forgiveness.
"This is The Last Supper all over again." Cain mutters. Few of us even noticed his words, but it made me look at him over the few pizza boxes between us. For once, I didn't look at him as a demon, but as a person. If he was a person, he'd be a pretty crappy person, actually. There'd be no excuse for his rudeness. His murder. The image of messy inky hair and hazel eyes surface in my mind and guilt rushes at me in a wave. What was I doing?
My jaw clenched, as though reminding myself that it's pointless to think about human things and feelings. I was a vampire, and the murderer before me was a demon. From hell, quite literally. "Take the Mark off my arm." I demand, meeting his hot gaze with my contrasting cold one. The table had begun talking so no one bothered looking up when my voice come from my lips. He tilts his head up, something I did often when being defiant or something of the sort.
"No." He pronounced it clearly, slowly, like talking to someone who didn't speak English well. "Princeps autem inferos." He adds in a sickly sweet voice, rolling it off his tongue like syrup. I knew what those Latin words mean. Princess of Hell. Original. Not. That trancelike feeling enters my head and I look away from him for it to go away again.
"You realize you're not going anywhere unless this Mark is off my arm, or you're a carcass?" I ask, meeting his gaze again after a moment. Now, he was smiling.
"Do you take me as a fool, Merida of the Winter?" He replies with a question, something that was my specialty. "If I take that Mark off your arm, then I'll have signed my death sentence." His voice is even, unwavering. "I'm right where I want to be." I could feel my fangs slide down, and my eyes darken at his words. "When you've realized that the Mark is a gift, not a burden, is when I'll be leaving- unscathed." Cain goes on, unfazed by my obvious threat.
"Yeah, we'll see." I reply, not the least convinced. He was actually stupid if he believed that. I raise my voice. "I'm leaving for New Orleans in the morning." I announce to the table. "I think a few days underneath the compound will make you rethink your choice." I tell Cain, smiling and batting my eyes innocently, then toss my red curls over my shoulder and retire for the night.
---
"America!" Francis exclaims, spinning around with his hands out wide as we enter the compound. Hayley watches him with amusement.
"Where's Penelope?" Bastian asks her, quietly. Her face drops and she looks at him.
"When Freya pulled the spell, she just... vanished. I'm sorry, Bastian." She lays a hand on my older brother's shoulder and to my surprise he doesn't pull away. It seems he's begun to warm up to the family. He was looking forward to talking to her, and I know it was his loyalty to me that kept him from following her. In fact, I wouldn't blame him if he did go after her. Elijah is first to welcome me with a smile, pulling me into a hug and I return it.
A grin meets my features. "I'm glad you made it back." He looks at my healed throat. "Sebastian gave me updates, and Zetrov?"
"They'll be following me." I answer his unspoken question. "We took a plane back to get here as soon as possible. I've already warned most of my Deputies." He looks at me with a questioning face and I quickly explain. "They run the League, every corner of the world. I've sent for the Armory- The Leagues Army- and they are going to take up positions in New Orleans on standby." I explain, rolling my shoulder, which ached. "Whatever happens, we'll be ready, and I have the sword." I look behind me, where Kol was keeping a close watch on Cain. "And I have Cain."
"I'll ask Freya to seal him, and cloak him." Elijah promises. "You're one of us, Merida."
"For better, or for worse." I agree. I break away from Elijah when I see Hope. "Hey kiddo." I greet her, and she smiles wide.
"Hi Merida!" She answers brightly and I give her a hug. Feeling Hayley's eyes on me when I stand back up.
"Where's your father?" I ask Hope and she shrugs so I look at Hayley, who's face drops. Hope moves off in Kol's direction and I walk up to Hayley, tilting my head expectantly. "Where's Niklaus?" The Hybrid mother looks at Hope then at me, lowering her voice.
"He's not doing good." She confesses, and though it seemed like she was frustrated, underneath I could see worry. "I guess Camille got into an argument with him."
"So?" I raise an eyebrow. "She'll get over it."
"It was bad." Hayley shakes her head, looking at me in a silent plea. I wanted to tell her I had more important things to do than babysit someone who shouldn't need babysitting, but I sigh in defeat.
"Fine. Where is he?"
Length: 2711 words