chapter fifty one

hot diggity dog

・❥・

    JORDANNA BLANKLY STARED at her father. She didn't know whether it was shock or what. No, it was definitely shock. Howard glanced over at his daughter with an uneasy expression etched upon his face and just as he made the tiniest bit of movement to stand to his feet — Jordanna snapped.

    The Jones grabbed a-hold of the lamp on the table besides her and drew her arms back before she hit him across the head with it. The man fell back in surprise at her sudden attack. "Jesus!" He attempted to scuffle away only for her to bring the lamp above her head and slam it back down onto the floor where his head laid — Howard narrowly dodged the attack and rolled out of the way. "Je-sus!"

   Jordanna grabbed a hold of his ankle and dragged his body over to her. She bent his foot at a painful angle and he grunted out in pain. If Jordanna knew one thing about her father, it was that he would've fought back by now with magic; so the question was, why wasn't he?

    The Jones grabbed the back of his neck and slammed his head into the floor repeatedly, ignoring his arms flailing about as he tried to fight back, a horrifying crack echoed across the room as his nose met the floor. Jordanna cautiously released his neck at the silence. "You still alive?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

    "I'm a Goddamn cat," Howard grumbled into the floor, his bloodied, crimson nose pressed up against the ground. "You gonna let me speak or keep throwing a bitch fit?"

    Jordanna falsely tilted her head in mock contemplation. "Bitch fit works fine for me," she said before she grabbed his arms and rolled him onto his back. Her heeled foot pressed against his neck, she dug her heel further into his skin. "Why the fuck are you here? How are you alive?"

    Howard batted her foot away and scowled up at her with a bloodied face. "Get off of me and I'll tell you." He grumbled.

    Jordanna took a step back and stared at him for a moment. Deep down her heart was racing, the last time she saw him, when she turned her humanity back on, it wasn't real. So it didn't scare her, but now, now all the bad things he had done came to surface, all the things he had done to her and her mother flashed through her mind like a taunt. It made her sick to her stomach looking at him because this time, this time it was real.

    "Well?" She asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

    Howard cleared his throat and pushed his body up, he rested his back against the wall. He took a suspenseful moment before he spoke. "I don't know."

    Jordanna stared at him with a deadpanned expression on her face. "What do you mean you don't know?"

    "I mean, Jordanna, I don't know. I haven't got a fuckin' clue. What? You think I wanna be here?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "You think I wanted to show up in this ..." He took a look around the room before continuing. "Creepy ass house, getting my ass beat by you?"

    "Well I don't know," Jordanna shrugged with pursed lips. "You like the attention. You're an attention whore, Howard."

    "Howard? What happened to dad?" He mocked with a smile.

    Jordanna narrowed her eyes at him and clenched her fist, causing another horrific crack to echo. Howard groaned and clutched his nose in his hand. The Jones rolled her eyes at his dramatic gesture and eyed him suspiciously.

    "Why aren't you using your magic? Don't tell me ... a few years in Hell and you've turned into a pussy?" She rose her eyebrows in question.

    Howard rolled his eyes and grabbed onto the shirt that was carelessly thrown on the floor by Jordanna two days ago ( what? She'd clean up eventually ). The vampire scowled and snatched the t-shirt off of him before he could hold it up to his bleeding nose.

    "Did you hear me? I asked you a question."

    "Yeah, I heard you, Jordanna. Everyone in the Goddamn city probably heard you." He grumbled before a sigh left his mouth and he reluctantly answered her question. "Truth is, I didn't wanna fight you. We've fought enough in the past ... if this, whatever the Hell it is, is my second chance, I'm not gonna waste it fighting with you."

    "Well, this isn't your second chance, you don't get a second chance," she spat.

    He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry for everything but i can't change what I did. I can't go back in time, Hell, if I could I would ... but I can't-"

   Bull-fucking-shit!

    Jordanna pulled a face and groaned in annoyance. "Stop talking. Listen to what I'm gonna say, okay? You, you are going back to whatever crackass underworld you crawled your way out of, I just need to figure out how to send you back."

   "Before you make any stupid-" He cut himself off upon the glare she sent him. "Rash decisions, I must've been sent back for a reason."

   Jordanna stared at him skeptically for a moment. She knew he was lying, he knew more than he let on. All this 'second chance' talk was nothing but lies. Howard never had and never would change. He was manipulative and he was a liar, it was just that simple.

   "Yeah, well, whatever that reason was I don't care. You're going back, and you're going back today."

・❥・

   Howard wasn't going back today.

   After hours of searching for a spell to send him back, she got nothing. She even contacted her ancestors who told her that he was back for a reason. What Goddamn reason would be so important that they'd send him. She was slowly losing her patience, and Howard didn't exactly help with his irritating, irrelevant comments being said every two seconds.

   She hadn't even been in the company of her father for two hours and she already wished that she could kill herself.

    Jordanna was currently dragging her father around with her, his hands were bound with the magic blocking handcuffs, she wasn't going to risk it. She had to be careful, people she cared about were littering all across New Orleans, her son was in the same building as Howard — she wouldn't put it past him if he used Sebastian as leverage against her or the Mikaelsons.

    But Howard didn't know of them, the last thing he remembered of Jordanna's life was before the Mikaelsons had made it to Mystic Falls. He didn't know about her relationship with Klaus, he didn't know about her son, he knew nothing.

   Or, well, he didn't.

    Jordanna dragged him through the hallways of the compound with an annoyed expression on her face. Howard followed after her, mouth agape as he took it all in. "Hot diggity dog!" He grinned in what Jordanna assumed was excitement. "This place is magnificent. You snag a rich guy or something?"

    Jordanna blinked in irritation and inhaled deeply. "Something like that."

    "Good on ya'. Always knew you'd go for the rich ones. Lemme guess, he's older, dying? You gonna take his money, Jords? Atta girl!"

    "Stop talking."

    Just as Jordanna and her father made it into the courtyard, a body dropped down from the balcony and in front of their feet. She pursed her lips and stared up at the sight of a smirking Klaus, an annoyed Elijah and a bored looking Freya. Klaus shrugged smugly before his expression fell as he took in the figure stood behind her.

    He watched closely as Jordanna and the faintly familiar man made their way up the stairs and onto the balcony. Klaus rose his eyebrows at the sight. Jordanna clicked her tongue before she gestured to her father. "Dad, Klaus, Klaus, Howard."

Before Klaus could ask what the Hell was going on, an eager Howard spoke up. "Klaus ..." he turned to Jordanna with narrowed eyes. "You snagged a Mikaelson?! Holyyy Hell."

"Shut up." Both Klaus and Jordanna demanded. Klaus turned back to Jordanna with raised eyebrows, a silent, unspoken question was asked.

Jordanna sighed, lifting her hands up. "I don't know, don't ask." She huffed before she nodded down to the man laid crumpled on the floor of their courtyard. "Feel like sharing what the Hell you're doing?"

"Looking for Aurora, it seems the police need to do a better go at their job."

"Who's Aurora?" Howard asked from over Jordanna's shoulder — no one answered him, instead, Jordanna followed after Klaus as he made his way into the upstairs living room, followed by a highly confused Freya and Elijah.

"Isn't your father supposed to be dead?" Freya voiced her confusion after a moment.

"Yep."

"As dead as dead can be." Howard sang.

Jordanna shot him annoyed look from over her shoulder. Freya only shook her head at the circumstance and turned her attention back onto the situation at hand. "Is all this torture necessary?" She asked her brother.

"Of course it is," Jordanna shrugged as she took a seat on the couch. "Cause that way they listen, and if they don't ... well, they die."

"Oh, yeah," Howard pointed at Jordanna in agreement, earning skeptical eyes to narrow onto him. "She told me to fuck off a gazillion times, I ignored her, obviously, and then ... she burnt me alive." He said with a smile on his face.

Elijah opened his mouth to speak but clamped it shut and shook his head in dismay.

Klaus ignored the question Freya had asked as well as what Howard had interjected and instead, called out into the hallway, "Where have you been?"

Marcel immediately walked into the room and looked annoyed at Klaus' tactless behaviour before he responded. "I was making sure that the Strix and their witches are out trying to find your loony ex girlfriend. Is that okay by you?" He retorted sarcastically, failing to notice Howard leant against the wall.

Elijah let out a sigh at the pointless argument and spoke up. "Gentlemen, please."

Marcel, however, ignored him. "All of our heads are on the chopping block because he lost the one thing that can kill an original."

"Actually, Cami stole it and then she lost it because she was parading it around like a damn piece of gold." Jordanna retorted, earning Marcel's attention to flit to her. "Morning Marcel." She said dryly.

Marcel nodded. "Hey Jords." He said before he turned his head upon hearing shuffling behind him, his eyes narrowed down onto the Adams man he failed to notice. He turned back to the Mikaelsons with raised eyebrows. "Who the Hell is this?"

   Klaus rolled his eyes at the fact they had to go over Howard's strange appearance once again. Howard squinted his eyes and a sly smile pulled at his lips. He lifted his cuffed hands and pointed a finger at the Gerard vampire. "I know you, you were Mary's annoying, prick friend. I wanna say Marvin, but due to the stink eye you're sendin' me I'm gonna say that's not it."

Nothing was said when Marcel grabbed Howard by the shoulders and slammed him against the wall. Marcel turned to Jordanna with a glare on his face. "What the Hell is he doing here? I thought he was dead."

Jordanna lifted a shoulder in answer. "Fuck if I know, I was doing a spell last night and ..." She trailed off and gestured to the Adams man.

Marcel nodded to himself and released his tight grip on Howard's ash covered t-shirt. It wasn't even a second later his fist met with the Adams' cheek.

Howard grunted and staggered side ways. "Yeah, okay." He muttered to himself with a groan. His nose, once again, gushed with blood and no one rushed to his side to help him.

"Can we get back to the situation at hand, please?" Elijah asked in annoyance, rubbing his hand across his forehead in dismay. "We can deal with this ... peculiar circumstance later."

"Right, where was we?" Klaus clasped his hands together and rolled his lips into his mouth.

"Marcel was blaming you for Aurora getting the white oak." Jordanna told him with a mocking smile.

"Oh, yes. Blaming me, even though it wasn't my fault," he rolled his eyes as he muttered the last few words down to Jordanna. Marcel rolled his own eyes at Klaus' remark. "It's not like I can cast a spell to find Aurora." He turned his attention to his sister and Jordanna, his gaze flickered between them. "In that respect, we're alike."

Jordanna's tongue poked the inside of her cheek in annoyance. "She's cloaked, Klaus. Probably by the witch she killed, which makes it harder for us to find her."

Freya nodded in agreement. "We've been working nonstop."

"Well, you've stopped working now, haven't you?" Klaus asked petulantly, looking between them he raised his eyebrows in a sarcastic manner.

Jordanna glared at him and smacked him upside the head, Marcel's lips upturned into a grin at the action. "You try finding her with magic then, huh? Oh, that's right, you can't." Jordanna retorted.

Howard lent into Klaus, earning a weirded look from the Mikaelson as he entered his 'personal space'. "She's got you there." Howard muttered to the Mikaelson.

"We won't just find her within a few hours," Jordanna told him with an annoyed expression. "It doesn't work like that."

Klaus rose his eyebrows and gestured towards the door. "Well go on then. On your way."

Freya gave her brother a scathing glare. "Do you talk to our other sister like this?" Klaus paled and a guilty look crossed his face, but Freya only gave him a cold look. "Didn't think so." She muttered before walking out of the room.

"I like her." Howard muttered to no one in particular as he clutched his bloodied nose.

Jordanna scoffed at her father as she watched Freya leave and her attention flitted to Klaus. "I know you're angry, but get a fucking grip. You don't have to be a dick to her, or me for that matter."

"Jordanna-" Klaus opened his mouth to speak, only for her glare at him and follow Freya out of the room, not without harshly grabbing her father by the sleeve of his t-shirt and dragging him out of the living room.

・❥・

Jordanna, as well as her father, had gone to St. Louis Cathedral with Freya, and after what felt like the nine thousandth attempt, Jordanna had given up and dragged her father with her to get herself and Freya coffees — it was safe to say as they waited in line for the drinks, Howard earned quite a few weirded looks from other people ( I guess behind handcuffed in broad daylight was a bit of a head turner ).

    But Jordanna never made it back to the Cathedral, instead, Naomi had called her and asked her of a favour, a big favour.

    The Tate vampire now owed Jordanna a lot of shoes.

    Jordanna sauntered up the stairs of the apartment building, when she finally reached Cami's apartment, she paused in front of the door and turned to face her father. "Do not speak, understand?"

    Howard mockingly held his cuffed hands up in surrender.

   Jordanna's hand wrapped around the door knob and she pushed open the door. The Jones blinked and rose her eyebrows as she looked around at the décor. "Have you been broken into or something?" She asked, gaining Cami's attention. "This place is a mess."

    Cami looked up at her, unamused. The blonde placed the yellowed, old book she was reading down onto the table next to the assortment of dark objects that laid strewn across the coffee table.

   Jordanna rolled her eyes at the lack of an answer and leant against the doorway between the living room and kitchen. "By the way, your doorbell needs fixing."

    "I keep forgetting to compel the shady landlord to fix it. Next time text." Cami replied dryly, closing the book. She stood to her feet and walked towards Jordanna until they were face-to-face. "You could get hurt, sneaking up on someone with a stockpile of dark objects."

    Jordanna's expression was blank — God she was bored. "I'm terrified," she stated dryly. "But I'll take my chances, thanks."

    Before Cami could retort something, a head popped out from behind Jordanna, startling the blonde. Jordanna exhaled deeply in dismay as her father held his cuffed hands out to the O'Connell. "Hi, I'm Howard, Danny's dad."

    Jordanna shut her eyes in annoyance. "I thought I told you not to speak."

   "It'd be rude to not introduce myself, Jordanna. Where are your manners?" He playfully rolled his eyes as Cami stared down at the cuffed hands with wide eyes.

    The blonde looked back up at him with furrowed brows. "...Didn't you kill her mom?"

   Howard rolled his lips into his mouth whilst Jordanna roughly grabbed him by the sleeve, shoving him towards the table. "Sit down and shut up."

    "O-kay," he muttered, complying with her demand.

    "And here I thought this was a social call," Cami mumbled to herself and brushed a strand of blonde hair away from her face with an eye roll.

   "More like a wake up call. Let me get to the point. You're stupid and deranged and you're pissing almost everyone off, including the one person who actually gives a damn about you. You've put the people I care about in danger more than once, because of some stupid dark objects that don't technically belong to you. But that's not important right now. What's important is making sure you're aware of the situation you're in. If they die, you die. Literally."

    "See, I sort of thought I had proven myself. I did risk what was left of my life to save Hayley's. And maybe what I need is some space — to deal with this whole ... I don't know, being dead, drinking blood, living forever ... If you have come to lecture me, save it. I have been lecturing myself for weeks." Cami said irritably, raising her eyebrows at the Jones.

    "I'm not gonna lecture you Cami, no. To do that it'd mean I'd have to talk to you for a long period of time and I wouldn't do that to myself, I do have some self respect, however, I'm going for the more fun option. This your coat?" Jordanna asked as she turned and picked up the jacket that was carelessly folded over a nearby chair and threw it at Cami's chest, the blonde caught it with a glare.  "Chop chop, I haven't got all day."

    Jordanna walked past her and headed for the door, Cami clutched the coat in hand and hesitantly began following after her.

    Howard whistled as he trailed behind his daughter,  he turned to Cami and gave her a playful shrug of his shoulders. "She gets that from her mother, I'm not that condescending, promise."

    Cami merely glared at him.

  
・❥・

    Jordanna pushed open the large doors that led to Marcel's fight gym. Cami gave her a skeptical side eye and watched as the Jones pulled her jacket off and threw it onto the nearby bench press.

   "This is your idea of fun?" Cami rose her eyebrows as she glanced around the room, watching as Howard boredly sat down onto the bench press where Jordanna placed her jacket.

    "Beating your ass? Oh, yeah." Jordanna nodded, placing her hands in her back pockets. "There's a fight coming, Cami. According to the prophecy, anyway. You ain't gonna be much help to anyone if you're stood there like a Goddamn tree waving your crappy antiques around."

    Cami rolled her eyes with a scoff as she pulled out what appeared to be a small, wooden box from her bag. "Huh. You see this? This will paralyze anyone who tries to attack me."

    Jordanna gave her a blank stare and used her magic to throw the small box out of Cami's hands. The rush of the dark magic from the object sent a tingle across her body. "I know what it does, Cami. You know, when I fell into that coma my body grew accustomed to dark magic, and now, now it doesn't affect me. If you tried to use that on me, I'd feel nothing and I won't be the only one, you can't rely on them all the time, you have to learn to defend yourself."

    "Come on, Jordanna, everyone knows a baby vamp is borderline useless. Even Josh could wipe the floors with me. I need these."

   "Seb could wipe the floors with you, little embarrassing don't you think?" Jordanna rose her eyebrows. "Besides, I never said throw them away, I'm telling you to grow a Goddamn backbone."

    Cami narrowed her eyes at Jordanna, not sure where she was going with the conversation. Jordanna looked around the room, trying to think of a way to talk to Cami without losing her patience.

    But it was Jordanna, she wasn't a patient person.

    "You're pathetic, you know that? You're not even a loser anymore, you're the shell of a loser. If you don't embrace the fact that you're a vampire now, where's that gonna get you, huh? Dead. Dead, dead."

    Cami looked both surprised and annoyed at her words. "You know, I'm not used to being on the receiving end of crappy advice."

   "So you admit you're a crappy therapist?" Jordanna rose her eyebrows with a sly smile before she rolled her eyes at the blank stare the blonde sent her way. "Count yourself lucky, you're not the cause of my bad mood for once," Jordanna told her, Cami's eyes filtered to Howard who waved at the obvious assumption.

    "So, what now?" Cami pursed her lips as she turned to face the Jones.

    "We're gonna get in that ring and you're gonna try hit me," Jordanna said with a grin, clasping her hands together as she sauntered off.

   "Don't you want to change your shoes first?" Cami asked with furrowed brows as she stared down at the heels on Jordanna's feet.

    Jordanna turned and gave the blonde a look that screamed please before she continued to do what she was doing.

    "I hope you got your shittin' pants on." Howard said with a low chuckle from his place on the bench.

    Cami turned to him briefly and pulled a mildly disgusted face. "What?" She asked as she watched the raven haired woman climb into the ring.

    "Your shittin' pants," he stated again with a wild grin. "I hope you're wearing 'em right now, cause you ... are about to shit your pants." He pointed towards his daughter who wrapped the fingerless gloves around her palm. "That she didn't get from her mother, that's all me."

    Cami inhaled deeply and took a cautious step towards the fight ring.

・❥・

    Jordanna was having way too much fun.

    It was as though the Gods above had finally let her release all that pent up annoyance she held towards Camille. And God was it worth it.

    Jordanna's fist met the side of Cami's face and the blonde groaned as she staggered back. Jordanna spat blood from her mouth, from when Cami had finally gotten a hit in. They had been at it for almost half an hour and Cami had only managed to hit her once.

    "Hit me," Jordanna urged, gesturing for the blonde to come closer. "Come on, Blondie. Hit me."

    Cami held the rope of the ring tightly and took a deep breath in and turned, her leg flew up in an attempt of a roundhouse kick — Jordanna caught her foot in her hand and used it to throw her to the floor.

    "That was embarrassing." Cami muttered to herself as she stayed laid on the floor.

    "Your shoes are embarrassing, that on the other hand, that was pathetic." Jordanna murmured. "Now get up and hit me."

    Cami begrudgingly rose to her feet and went to lunge at Jordanna to punch her in the face, though she dodged the first hit. The Jones smacked her hands away and blocked the second, she flicked her foot out and tripped Cami so that she fell against the chain-link fence wall.

    "Again." Jordanna commanded.

    Cami turned and swung at the vampire, who once again, dodged her hit before she vamp-sped behind the blonde and pinned her arm behind her back before she shoved her against the ring.

    "Again! Come on, Cami, me and you both know how much you wanna hit me."

    Cami, who was slowly getting frustrated and aggressive, lunged at Jordanna with her vampire-speed and attempted to punch her, but the Jones swatted her arm away and grabbed her in a choke-hold, she lifted her up in the air slightly before Cami was thrown into the wall.

    Jordanna sighed tauntingly and rose her eyebrows. "I'm getting bored, Cami. Do something."

    Before Jordanna could even react further, Cami vamp-sped towards her and tackled her, she flipped them over so that Jordanna was on top. Cami's foot met Jordanna's abdomen and she kicked her across the ring, where she was thrown against the wall and bounced down onto the floor. Rather than looking mad, Jordanna grinned with crimson teeth as she wiped the blood from her mouth and the two rose to their feet to catch their breath.

    "Finally," Jordanna huffed. "You might even have stand a chance against Sebby."

    "Hey ... Thanks for coming to find me today." Cami said, sending the younger woman an appreciative look.

    Jordanna shook her head. "Don't thank me, I'm doing this for my own entertainment. Besides," Jordanna paused as she spat blood from her mouth. "I've always wanted to hit you, this is a win win for me. If you wanna thank me you can take that stick outta your ass and stop being a bitch to Nai."

    "Deal." Cami nodded, visibly happier then she was earlier, but their conversation was interrupted by the sound of Hayley's phone ringing.

    The Marshall-Kenner had joined them shortly after Cami and Jordanna descended into the ring — the Jones had asked the brunette to watch over her father for her. Hayley grabbed her phone and answered it when she saw the contact name.

    "Hey." The Marshall greeted Davina, she came to a stand from the bench she was sat on.

Jordanna leant against the wall of the ring as she listened in on the conversation. "Hayley, you have to listen to me, Jordanna's not answering her phone and Aya's witches are coming to kill her."

Hayley's face dropped as she turned to face the Jones. "What?"

Before Hayley or Jordanna could process what Davina had told them, the doors of the gym opened and the sisters strode into the room in a single-file line. Hayley's eyes widened at the sight of them.

Jordanna turned to Cami. "You better get outta here," the Jones told her just as one of the witches set her sights on Jordanna.

The new lead witch, a pale blonde, thrusted her hand out in front of her, sending Jordanna flying backwards so hard that the back wall of the ring was completely knocked down and she landed on what used to be the sacristy. Howard moved his body in attempt to dodge his daughter's flying figure — but instead, he accidentally threw his body onto the ground, he landed on his back with a groan.

Jordanna groaned out in pain as her back collided with the floor. "Just when I was having a good day." Jordanna groaned and muttered to herself.

Though, it seemed her father overheard her words. "Well my day just gets better and better." Howard grinned manically.

The witch repeated the movement and sent Jordanna flying against the back wall of the church until she bounced off onto the ground.

Hayley's hybrid face transitioned in anger as she tried to lunge at the witch attacking her friend, but the witch thrusted her palms downward to telekinetically pin Hayley face-down onto the floor before she was knocked out.

Cami vamp-speed over to where her bag landed next to Hayley and she pulled out the dark object from earlier, she set the wooden box on the ground in front of the blonde witch.

The lid of the box spun, and the blonde immediately became paralysed, giving Jordanna chance to stumble back to her feet.

However, when a second witch entered, Cami kicked her in the stomach hard while Jordanna grabbed some jump ropes from the wall, using them to strangle and snap the neck of the paralysed witch.

Unfortunately, a third witch showed up and cast a pain infliction spell on Cami that knocked her out before she turned to Jordanna and, using her magic, she broke her bones one at a time.

Jordanna cried out in pain and weakly rose her hand, thrusting it in the direction of the witch. The witch's eyes began to bleed as well as her ears, crimson tainted her skin before she screamed out and collapsed.

Though, there was still one witch left.

"If you let me outta these things I'll help you!" Jordanna faintly heard her father call out from behind her.

"Screw you!" Jordanna retorted just as blood bubbled from her mouth as the last remaining witch raised her other hand and used telekinesis to begin to rip Jordanna's heart out, causing a bloodied stain to appear on the front of her shirt.

Jordanna screamed out in both frustration and pain before she felt her eyes roll to the back of her head and an eerie white took place. Without a conscious thought, Latin spilled from her lips and her hands shot out in front of her.

Howard watched on with wide eyes as he noticed the white overtaking the blue of her iris'. Jordanna's chants got louder, and louder when suddenly ... a horrifying crack echoed across the gym and the witch's head tumbled from her body.

Jordanna huffed and felt her eyes flicker back to their ocean blue colour. The vampire scuffled across the floor and reached Hayley's side.

The Jones repeated slapped the hybrid across the face. "Hayley!" She whisper shouted. "Hayley!"

Just as she rose her hand to slap her again, the Marshall-Kenner grabbed her wrist and her eyes slowly fluttered open. "I'm awake, asshole."

Jordanna shrugged innocently and leant against the wall. "I didn't know that."

"You knew." Hayley muttered.

A small smirk pulled at Jordanna's lips, she did know.

"That was fun," Howard voiced from his place on the ground.

"Shut up." Both Hayley and Jordanna told him.

The two attempted to catch their breath from the attack when they heard the click of heels.

Suddenly, Aya strode into the room. Hayley rolled her eyes at the sight. "I thought I smelled arrogance."

"I think you mean confidence." Aya stated smugly.

"No," Jordanna shook her head and pursed her lips, holding a hand to her heart as her chest rapidly rose up and down. "She meant arrogance."

Aya gave Jordanna a bored look and rolled her eyes, "I can understand how the uneducated are apt to confuse the two."

    Uneducated? Jordanna totally went to at least half of her classes!
 
"Hm," Jordanna huffed as she rose to her feet, and in doing so, she kicked off her heels. "You wanna tell me why you entitled freaks need my heart?"

Aya merely lifted her shoulders in a shrugging motion. "It's nothing personal, I just value my life above yours."

Aya rolled up her sleeves and lunged for Jordanna, to rip out her heart, but the Jones managed to spin away from her and dodge her attack just in time.

Jordanna picked up a metal hand weight and backhands Aya across the face twice in a row with it. However, just as Aya went to lunge at Jordanna, Hayley vamp-sped forward and lifted her leg in a round house kick and her foot met Aya's cheek. The older vampire managed to grab Hayley in a choke-hold and slammed her against the shelf of weights so hard that she blacked out.

Aya turned back to Jordanna and went to lunge at her, the Strix vampire kicked her leg out and her foot collided with Jordanna's stomach so hardly she landed in the same stack of shelves Hayley did, Jordanna's head collided with one of the weights so harshly she was immediately knocked out. But before she could venture towards the unconscious vampire, Marcel arrived, having recovered from his own snapped neck, he grabbed her in a headlock and pulled her hand away from Jordanna.

"Aya, you take her heart, you start a war." Marcel told her, but she dismissed his words and headbutted Marcel in the face, she spun into a defensive position.

"Don't let your association with vampire trash cloud the opportunity before you." Aya spat. She turned back to the Jones, but Marcel grabbed a nearby bench-press bar and swung it at the middle of her back, knocking her down so hard that she collapsed onto the floor. Marcel pointed the end of the bar at her chest.

"The Mikaelsons will kill us before you can even light the candles on that spell!" Marcel rose his voice harshly.

Aya kicked the bar, which caused it to smack Marcel in the face, giving her enough time to steal it away from him and use it as a weapon to hit him over the head before she used it to pin Marcel against the wall by the neck.

"There is no alternative," Aya hissed.

"You're wrong. Give me a few hours to set this thing straight. Or push me out of the way and condemn yourself and everyone else in the Strix to a slow and painful death. I want to be de-linked just as much as you do. Give me the chance to do it the right way."

A displeased expression crossed Aya's face at Marcel's words, but, eventually, she released him. "Bring me a solution by midnight, or I will rip out your heart right before I come back and take hers."

・❥・

Jordanna walked down the stairs of the compound just after she had locked her father in one of the spare bedrooms, and was met with the sight of an anxious Hayley pacing up and down the courtyard.

The Jones brushed passed the brunette and took a seat down onto the couch besides Klaus whilst Hayley was explaining what happened.

"The attack was about breaking the sire link. Marcel told us that Aya's witches already have a spell to do it."

Klaus rose his eyebrows and turned to Jordanna, "And how does your heart play into this?"

"I'm the only unsired vampire, I guess," Jordanna shrugged. "Apparently, that's the key."

"And yet, Marcel neglected to mention that this morning," Klaus clenched his jaw.

Jordanna shot him an irritated look, "He saved me, remember? Don't be so quick to jump down his throat, jeez."

"But the Strix might yet come for you," Elijah's brows danced with concern.

Jordanna leant forward, resting her elbows on her knees as her brows furrowed in thought. "No, no they won't. Witches always find some loophole, some kind of witchy way around it and ..." she looked up, her eyes met Hayley's. "I created a new sireline, Hayley is sided to me. That could be it. It's the only sireline that is separated from the prophecy, it could work."

"They failed today, retrieving your heart, and yet they didn't bother with Hayley's," Klaus' own brows furrowed. "Which means they may already have an alternative."

"Jackson," Hayley sighed deeply and shut her eyes. "His heart is a mirror of mine, making him apart of that sireline."

Klaus and Elijah shared a look and paused for a moment, Jordanna's eyes flickered between the two as they had a silent conversation. "What?" She asked due to the look on Klaus' face.

"We need to dig it up."

"Klaus." Hayley gave him a look of exasperation.

"Aurora's bullet very nearly killed Elijah. When she returns — and she will, I would prefer the vampires of New Orleans be obligated to protect us. They'll be more likely to do so if our lives remain linked to theirs." The Mikaelson told her before he rushed away, Elijah gave Hayley a look that told her he wasn't fond of the idea, but they all knew it needed to be done.

"Niklaus is right. The sire-link has to remain unbroken. We have to go."

Jordanna and Hayley shared a look as the latter sighed in defeat. "Why does life hate us?" Jordanna muttered dramatically and turned to face the brunette. "I mean, remember when we met? I was fifteen, you was like fifty-"

    "I'm only a few years older than you." Hayley scoffed.

    "Really?" Jordanna said in a high pitched tone, turning to face her, she furrowed her brows sarcastically and she looked her up and down. "You look a lot older than you are. Stress getting to you, huh?"

・❥・

By the time they had made it to Jackson Square Park, they were too late. Hayley expression saddened as glossy tears were held in her eyes, she knelt in front of the sapling where she buried Jackson's heart, which has already been stolen by someone else.

"Who would steal his heart?" Her voice cracked as she spoke, she came to a stand and her eyes held grief.
"It was the only piece of Jackson that I had left."

Jordanna made her way over to her friend rested her chin on her shoulder. "A prick, that's who. We'll get them, Hayley."

Elijah nodded his head in agreement. "We'll find who did this."

"And return the favour tenfold."

Hayley ignored Klaus and wordlessly stared down at her husband's grave.

    Jordanna turned and side eyed Klaus, her brows furrowed at his words.

   "What the Hell does that even mean? Tenfold," she mocked with a lowered voice. "You sound like a damn English teacher, saying words that no one knows. No, actually, you sound like Elijah ⎯ the walking, talking dictionary."

   "Uh-"

Author's Note!
A VERY cute moment coming in the next chapter, very much possibly a ring being throw in the mix as well as a visit from JJ's bitches

Side note: jj and klaus would deffo make a sex tape