Two weeks have past and Stefan ended up staying for about a week and a half before he left. I barely spoke to Ileana. She left to find Hayley and Jackson. Nik and I are doing okay, I guess. I mean, things are better than it was these last four months.
I went to the courtyard when I noticed a table full of fruits. I looked at it in confusion and I shrugged my shoulders, thinking that it was Nik who got it and I help myself. I took a grape when I heard footsteps so I turned and I saw Nik walking over to me.
"So, I guess I have to be thanking you for all of this." I said and he looks confused for a moment.
"It's certainly a card I've played in the past, but I had no hand in this..." Nik says, gesturing to the food on the table.
"I guess we have Elijah to thank...?"
"This wasn't my doing..." Elijah says as he enters the courtyard and he too looks confused.
"Then, where did this all come from?" I asked and suddenly the silver lid on the platter begins to rattle, startling me. Nik lifts the platter and two starlings that fly up toward the ceiling. "Okay... What the hell was that?"
Nik picks up the note and reads it. He finishes reading he looks up at us a bit nervous.
"An invitation from our mother."
***
I'm laying on the bed and Nik is standing on the balcony that overlooks the French Quarter and he's staring at the invitation. "It is times like this I'm really glad my mother is dead."
"We have enough enemies here." Nik says as he turns around and walks over to me. "And now, the war for our home is to be fought against my own family."
"Your psychotic mother and her lackeys tried to kill our daughter with a carving knife through her heart." I told him as I sat up. "I'll happily kill her as well."
Nik smirks at me.
"You will do no such thing." Elijah says as he enters the room. "Esther's a master in the art of possession. We know whose body she currently inhabits. We must decipher her intentions before she finds a new host."
"Well, her last invitation was an assassination attempt on all her children. I think we can assume her intentions are decidedly foul."
"Well, then. We have..." Elijah checks his watch and looks up at us, "... this afternoon to prepare for the worst."
Elijah leaves and I rolled my eyes before flopping back onto the bed.
"I guess us dressing up as if we're going to court is apart of your brother's plan." I said as I pulled him on top of me.
"I guess it is." Nik says and he kisses me.
After a moment he pulls away and just stares at me making me confused, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Nik says putting a smile on his face.
I put my hands on both of his cheeks and gave him a couple of kisses. "Okay, get off of me." I said, playfully, as I pushed him to other side of me and he chuckles.
"Oh, love."
"Oh, love what?"
"Just oh, love." Nik smiles and he pulls me on top of him making me giggle. I laid there on top of him with my arms wrapped around his for a while.
***
I had got a phone call from Oliver and he informed me that Esther has another witch working with her. I went downstairs and into the dining room where I see compelled caterers. One of the caterers gives him a choice of two different bottles of wine.
"Skip the salad course. Let's not make this dreadful evening any longer than it needs to be." Nik says as he chooses a wine and dismisses the caterer.
"Oliver is living up to his end up the deal. He just told me your mother is working with another witch."
"Building alliances in her quest to destroy us, I imagine." Nik says as he turns to face me and walks over to me.
"It must be exhausting hating someone for over a thousand years. Your mother came back from the dead and what's the first thing she does? Tries to kill you and your siblings. Now she's back again and we can assume she wants to kill you guys again. She had six kids. I don't understand how she can hate them."
"Seven, actually." Nik says and I looked at him confused. "And, I think at one time, she loved us very much."
I never pushed him to talked about these things. If he ever wanted to talk I would always be there. I can tell by the conversation is making him emotional because he turns away and anxiously begins folding napkins on the table before speaking again.
"One died before I was born."
"You never told me that."
"There wasn't much to say. She died of the plague. Years later, my brother Henrik was killed by the werewolves in our village. The loss of another child pushed my mother over the edge."
There's a question that's been bugging for years but I never brought it up.
"Do you ever think about how you were the product of an affair that maybe Henrik was too?" I asked and by the look on his face, he's never asked himself that.
"Who knows. Probably not because Mikael never treated him the way he treated me." Nik says and I looked at him, sadly. "As you know, my mother used her magic to turn us into immortals. I think that's when she loved us the most. But, it was her undoing. It triggered a sequence of events that led to the reveal of her long-held secret. My birth father was the werewolf whose pack killed my little brother. Of course, when Mikael found out, he murdered my real father, and so, my mother lost her lover, too."
"I guess I can tell now why she is the way she is. I feel like I'm losing my mind having just given away our daughter. I remember her tiny little feet and her tiny little hands and then just us giving her to Rebekah to protect her. I can't imagine if she'd actually died. She's four months and two weeks today."
Nik looks me with a couple of tears in his eyes. "You know, my siblings used to tell each other she didn't hate us... she hated herself for what we've become. I think they believed that even after she tried to kill us all."
"And you? What did you believe, Nik?"
"I don't know. I just knew I wanted her dead."
"Well, every good story needs a wicked witch." I said as I winked at him with a small smile to cheer him up. "It'll be more fun when we're the ones who kill her."
"Hmm." Nik smirks at me as he grabs my waist and pulls me closer to him. "We will get our revenge and we will bring our daughter home."
I looked at him with a smile, feeling relieved that he said that.
***
"Marcel's witch is being held captive in the Quarter." I told Nik and Elijah as I enter the dining room again. Oliver called me just seconds ago informing me of what's going on.
"Oh, perfect." Nik said, sarcastically. "Mother's a step ahead, as usual."
"Oliver's with her. I'll go, and I'll get her to do the spell. But, I need the necklace." I said and I looked at Nik who's looking at Elijah so I looked at him.
"I don't like this whatso—"
"You two deal with your very psychotic mother and I will deal with the witch. It's a milk run." I said and I looked at Nik who pulls the necklace out of his pocket and hands it to me. "Thanks."
Just as I was about to take the necklace Nik holds it in his hand tightly preventing me from taking me. "Be careful."
"I will." I said as he lets go of the necklace and I turn to walk away.
"Wait." Elijah says and I turn to face him. "There's something else. A disciple of Marcel's was instructed to fetch another ingredient. Ask for Gia."
"Okay." I said, nodding in understanding.
Suddenly, Nik pulls me into a kiss taking me by complete surprise. It wasn't the usual kisses he gives me it. It was more forceful like he wanted to prove something. I then realized what's going on. I practically pushed him away and scoffed at him. I walked out of the dining room and I heard Nik following me.
"Love..." Nik says once I enter the courtyard and I turn to look at him.
"How long have you know?"
"Since the birth of our daughter." Nik says and I'm surprised Elijah told him about his feelings for me because certainly, I wasn't going to tell Nik.
"And he told you?"
"More like it slipped out." Nik says and I just looked at him. "Ava..."
"Don't get like that with me again. I hate it and you know that." I said referring to the kiss he gave a minute ago. I knew he was doing that just to show Elijah that I'm his wife. "You know me and you know Elijah. Nothing will ever happen between him and I because I don't love him. I love you. Elijah is like my brother, a friend to me. Besides he's your brother and you know I would never do something like that to you. I'm not the type of person to switch from brother to brother."
"Ava..."
"No." I said, preventing him from speaking any further. "I don't want to deal with this right now. I'm leaving."
I walked away from him when I look back at Nik and I saw Elijah. I shake my head and walked away.
***
I just arrived at the Lafayette Cemetery. I'm in the crypt where Oliver is waiting with Lenore, the witch, who is still chained up. "They worked her over pretty good." Oliver tells me.
"We need to hurry and get her out of here." I said and Oliver starts to panic.
"Huh? Then what? They'll know that I let her go. Look, you asked me to infiltrate Cassie's coven, I'm not gonna blow my cover for some has-been hippie-witch." Oliver says and Lenore groans and gives him side-eyes, which makes him slightly guilty. "No offense."
"How about we make it look like her people used their juju on you? You can tell Cassie that Lenore got rescued by her people?"
"Let me guess, you, uh, wanna beat the hell out of me? Make it look convincing?" Oliver says and I smirk at him.
"Well, it might be a little fun on my end."
Oliver laughs before he sighs in defeat. "Okay, just... just not the face, okay?"
I balled up my hand into a fist and punched him in the face.
***
After I knocked Oliver unconscious, I release Lenore from the chains. "It's nothing worse than what he's done. He'll be fine." I said as Lenore checks Oliver.
"What's your dog in this fight?" Lenore asks. " You're not a Mikaelson."
"Well, not by blood. I'm..."
"Klaus' wife." Lenore says and I nodded. "You're the werewolf mother?"
"And now I'll add witch-rescuer to the résumé," I said. "Listen, can we do this spell, or not?"
"After what that bitch and her lackey did to me? I'll do any spell that you want." Lenore says and I smirk at her. She walks out of the crypt, and I followed her.
***
Lenore and I are at her shop and she is preparing to start the spell in the back room. I watched her as she sets up a small cauldron before I handed her the bag with the python in it. "So, will this take long?" I asked, impatiently.
"You want me to soul-brand the resurrected spirit of a thousand-year-old witch? It's best I take my time and do it right." Lenore says and looks up at me. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. No one should ever have to lose a child."
"No one should ever have to go threw the pain of losing a child." I said and Lenore lights a bundle of sage.
"You have the talisman?"
"Right." I said as I took the necklace out of my pocket and handed it to her. "I've never seen someone get soul-branded. How does this work? Why are we soul-branding her if we already know which body she's in?"
Lenore sets the necklace on top of the cauldron so that it lays it while the ends hang over the rim. "The next time she jumps into a body, she'll be marked with a distinctive symbol on the back of her hand." She says as she pulls the python out of the bag. "This way, you'll always know who she is."
"Did Esther tell anything to you while holding you captive? Did you overhear anything? Did she give you any idea why she's doing all this?"
Lenore puts the python around her neck for a moment and looks at me with a serious expression. "Love."
"Love?" I laughed. "I've never seen someone 'love' the way she does. She literally tried to kill all of her children over a year ago."
Lenore takes the python from around her neck and holds it in front of her with one hand as she speaks, "What besides love can inspire such pain and cruelty? And Esther?"
Lenore takes a knife with her other hand and slices down the length of the snake with it. She squeezes the entrails in her hands, dripping the blood in the cauldron. I'm guessing cutting snakes open with bare hands is normal for witches.
"Her love is very, very strong."
I watched Lenore as she starts the soul-branding spell. "Aux sa ah ça le vous de le vous l'inspir non do set."
Lenore finishes her spell and falls forward, leaning against the cauldron to keep her from falling onto the table. She looks around the room in confusion.
"Hey... You okay?
"Yes." Lenore answered.
"You sure..."
"Just getting my bearings..." Lenore says in a whisper and she lifts her hand from the rim of the cauldron when I noticed the brand on the back of her right hand. I knew it only meant one thing.
I vamp-out and hissed at her. "Esther." I said and Lenore/Esther smirks at me.
I felt my phone buzzing but my attention was on Esther and she's washing the snake's blood from her hands.
"Go ahead. You can answer it."
I grabbed my phone and saw that it was Elijah. "Esther. Lenore's shop."
Esther thrusts her arm forward and uses her magic to kill my phone. "That'll be enough."
"How dumb are you? You know they're gonna come for me." I said and Esther smiles at me.
"My darling, that's been the idea all along." Esther says as she continued to smile which creeped me out. "It's so lovely to finally meet you again, Ava Rose. At the ball in Mystic Falls, I was going to tell you that you were a werewolf that it was binding since before you were born."
"Ah, yes. I remember. Finn the messenger."
"Tell me, do my sons ever acknowledge the good you bring into their lives? After all, it was you who gave them hope."
I looked at her suspiciously because I didn't know whether she meant the emotion or my daughter.
"The promise of a child shows us all the possibilities of a future that could be. Children are meant to save us from the worst parts of who we are. A truth that makes my own circumstances all the more tragic, wouldn't you say?"
"You want a pity party? I'm sure as hell no one is going to give it to you."
Esther looks as though she is offended for a brief moment before shrugging it off. "It's a terrible thing, for a mother to fail her child."
She sees the starling necklace Nik gave me to give to Lenore and she picks it up so she can look at it closely.
"As you well know. But now, I offer you freedom. The gift of a new body. Freedom from being a hybrid. I have the ability to return to you all that you have lost, Ava Rose. To make it so that you could have a family of your own. More children of your own. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"I admit. Interesting offer but I don't like kissing people's asses. Just look at your son Finn. Mommy's boy. I personally hate mommy's boys. Always doing what mommy says." I said which makes her angry.
"Finn is a good son."
I heard the door being open and I saw Nik rushing over to me. "I assume you've had the misfortune of speaking to my mother?"
Esther picks up a handful of powder and throws it towards Nik, creating a magical barrier to keep him from coming any closer to her.
"You hide behind your spells like a coward." Nik says, annoyingly.
"I did not come here to wage war." Esther says as she picks up another handful of the powder and throws it sideways toward Elijah, who had just tried to run toward her from behind to catch her off-guard, and it prevents him from coming any closer as well.
"Everything you do is an act of war. If you touch her, so help me..."
"Ava Rose is free to go." Esther said, interrupting Elijah. "I've spoken my piece, she knows why I'm here. I have come to heal our family, Elijah."
"Well, that's a grand sentiment, coming from you." Nik says and he turns to look at me. "Go. Now."
I looked at him worriedly, and he gives me a look so I vamp-speed out of there.
***
I was at the compound for a while when Nik and Elijah returned. We're in the courtyard, processing all that we've learned this evening from Esther.
"Of course she used those damn birds to make her offer." Nik says, angrily.
"Besides the offer of rebirth, what else did she say?" Elijah asks me.
"I don't know. She rambled a lot. She blamed the two of you for what happened to Hope, to me..."
Nik looks at me surprised and he stops pacing around so he can stare at me in the eyes. "Well, I hope you're not thinking of taking her offer?" He asks and I just looked away. "AVA! I'm talking to you!"
"Months have passed!" I yelled back taking him by surprise. "Months without our daughter and nothing has changed! All I can think about is when we're getting our daughter back? When she's what? 1, 5, 8? There's one problem after another. I don't know how to go on without her."
"Love..."
"Just leave me alone." I said before storming off.
***
I'm in the room sitting on the floor drinking from a glass of scotch when Nik walks in and sits beside me. I've calmed down a bit.
"Sometimes I wished things were the way they were months ago when I was still pregnant and our biggest problem were the Harvest girls."
"I'm sorry about earlier. I was..."
"Jealous?" I asked. "You don't have to be jealous over Elijah because nothing will ever happen between him and I. I've seen you jealous before but not like the way you did earlier. Kissing me like that. I don't like that."
"I know, love." He whispers. "I just... I don't want to lose you, Ava. I've lost you way too many times."
I knew he was being serious because he was calling me by my name. Something was still off about him. He wasn't angry about the Elijah thing so there's something else bothering him but what is it? I could feel another argument coming along if I asked anything about it. I really didn't want to get into another argument tonight.
"Can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm exhausted." I said and he nods.
I went over to my side of bed and took off my dress and heels before laying in bed. He takes off his clothes before laying next to me. We stared at each other for a couple of minutes when I spoke up.
"You're not going to lose me because I love you, Nik. No matter what happens I will always love you." I said and he looks at me confused.
"What do you mean by no matter what happens? You're thinking about my mother's offer?"
"No, I'm not. I like being a vampire... a hybrid. I should probably engraved that in my mind by now." I said and he chuckles. "Dying three times kinda sheds new light on life. It's a reminder that being immortal isn't forever."
"You're not going to die." Nik says and I heard the fear in his voice. "We will bring our daughter home. I promise you."
"How can you promised something you're not so sure about?"
"Because I will make sure of it."
A/N: Next chapter will be posted Monday, December 9th.