Chapter thirty • two!
❞You don't need a reason to help people.❞
⚘
ELIJAH CAME BACK FROM THE french quater and saw Marcel talking to two cops.
"Anything?"
"They're putting eyes and ears out everywhere. Daywalkers are working every contact we got. Cops, dock workers, guys in the treme. Word is out. Anyone trying to earn favor with me gets a lifetime of it if they find them." Marcel informed.
"Good. I need a pen and paper."
Elijah demanded walking away.
"Hey." Marcel spoke hurrying after him. "Am I taking orders from you now? Or are we in this together?"
"Pen and paper, Marcel. Now." The original repeated taking of his blazer.
"Look, I want her back just as much as you do, you know. Both of them."
The dark skinned man turned around and went to grab a pen and paper as Elijah began to unbutton his blue camisole.
"Hayley!"
Hayley hastily walked in and was a bit out of breath. "Elijah. You're back. Did you find any... thing?" She paused and got distracted when she saw him shirtless, and the names that were written on his upperbody. "What is happening?"
"I need you to make a list of these names. Please."
"Okay." The werewolf agreed, coming closer with the notebook that Marcel gave her and looked at the names by touching them. She walked around him and saw one specific name written on his forearm. "Sabine?
Elijah what is this?"
"I believe they represent the names of
the women that Celeste inhabited for the past two centuries." He replied.
"It's called a devinette. It's old school, kind of a riddle. Witches use them to teach their kids. Solve it and it disappears." Marcel informed.
Hayley turned her face around so she could look at the dark skinned man. "Why? What's the point?"
"Celeste forced me to make a choice between yourself and my siblings, and now she means to mock that choice, taunting me with a childish game. The longer the game, the more they suffer." Elijah angrily said.
He looked to the ground, controlling his anger. "We need to solve this riddle."
The werewolf pursed her lips and put down the note she had in her hand. "We need Rory."
⚘
Hayley went to get the strawberry blonde and soon found her in the living room with a book on her lap with her staring at the wall.
Aurora immediately stood up and wided her red and puffy eyes. "Have you guys found anything? Can I do something? Do you guys need my help? I-"
"- I need you to calm down okay?" Hayley cut her off. "And yes, we need your help. Your banshee side needs to come out for a few minutes."
The werewolf carried her to the others and told as to why the needed her help with.
"The solution lies somewhere in these names. "
Rory kind of got into a trans and looked at the names, trying to find what she needed. Every name she read in a whisper, so soft that even super hearing wasn't working. The process went very fast and every time a name didn't appeal to her she shook her head until she saw a certain name.
Rory tilted her head and pointed to the name. "Annie Lafleur."
Marcel's booming voice pulled her out of her trans and looked up at everyone.
"Annie Lafleur. She's a witch that was shunned from her coven just over a year ago. Never knew why, but I can find out."
With that confidence the two men went looking for someone who knows her, the woman, while the others stayed behind.
⚘
"She killed herself?" The banshee asked horrified.
The two were on the phone with the upset original.
"Yes. Drowned herself in the mississippi, to be precise. Celeste was clearly tired of the body and was ready to take Sabine's."
"How do you know that?" Hayley questioned.
"She leapt from her death from the very location Celeste and I had our first kiss."
Hayley tried to reply without being mean. "Poetic, I guess, in a creepy, vendetta kind of way. "
"All these names, these lives, stolen that Celeste might take her revenge. I suppose we have no choice but to see where they take us. Hayley ... Aurora, I have to go. I'll call you back."
"Elijah wait." Hayley pleaded.
"What is it?"
"Ask Marcel if he knows anything about a name of that list. Brynne Deveraux. Sophie said that it was her family's bloodline t put the curse on the crescent moon wolves, but Celeste said that she was the only one could break it. If Brynne Deaveraux was actually Celeste when she cast the spell, then maybe Celeste can still break it."
"I'll see what he knows."
"Elijah, I'm really sorry that you're going through this." Hayley apologized with teary eyes. "If I had known that Celeste had made you choose who to help-"
He cut her off. "-You were going to die in that fire Hayley, along with my brother's child. There was no choice."
And he hanged up.
The banshee pulled her friend in a hug and didn't let go.
The werewolf listened to her heart and rubbed her back. "What's wrong? You're heart is going to fast. If your heart keeps beating like this you will definitely get a panic attack."
Aurora's hair fell over her face when she fumbled with her fingers. "I just miss them. I kinda got used with Rebekah always doing things with me and ... Klaus-" she sighed. "-I miss him too, a lot."
"Hayley grabbed her fumbeling hands and smiled up to her. "We'll get them back, safely." She promised.
Aurora smiled back and swallowed her smile going away too. "I would love that, but no, they aren't coming home safely, not both of them."
__________