CHAPTER ONE | REBIRTH

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS WAS A CHANGE THAT NOT EVEN RILEY HERSELF KNEW THAT SHE WANTED, BUT IT WAS ONE SHE NEEDED. For as long as she could remember, the only place that Riley had ever considered home was Mystic Falls— with Damon. In the beginning of their relationship, Riley never pictured her life without Damon, that was until their relationship began to crumble beneath their feet. The two ended amicably under the undeniable reality that the Salvatore had developed feelings for Elena. 

With their relationship firmly dead in the water, Riley packed a bag and high-tailed it straight out of Mystic Falls in an attempt to live her life to the fullest. She spent a while living with her grandmother, Gwen, before she then decided to spend time learning more about witches, her family history and the true extent of her powers. She was thriving. 

New Orleans just so happened to be one of the cities that Riley found the most beautiful, and had always wanted to visit. The art and the jazz was something that enticed her, as well as the stories her grandmother used to tell her from when she lived in New Orleans herself. Before long, Riley had managed to find herself an apartment above a bar on Bourbon Street which was convenient, to say the least. 

Caroline had been someone that Riley could not seem to shake from her past life, and she would never want to. The blonde vampire was one of the very few people that Riley regretted leaving behind, as well as Stefan, who neither of them had heard from in months. The Forbes girl had filled Riley in on everything. The Other Side had collapsed, taking Bonnie and Damon with it. Of course, the witch felt horrific that her friends had to go through something as traumatic as losing the people they loved, but as much as she cared about them, she needed to put herself first— something she never did before.

"Oh, my God! That apartment is stunning!" Caroline exclaimed loudly. Riley had video called her friend, who had constantly been asking to be shown around her new apartment. "And, is that—"

"Jazz. Yup. I don't think there's been a point in time since I've been here that I haven't heard someone playing on that damn street below." The strawberry-blonde with chuckled softly whilst she dropped herself down on the couch. "You'd think by now I'd be super annoyed with it. But, no. I actually kind of love it."

"You're a braver woman than me. The novelty will have worn off and I'd be pulling my hair out by now."  

"Well, it beats being in Mystic Falls, that's for sure." Riley hummed softly. She remembered back to the time that she told Caroline she was leaving— the blonde was in denial until the moment she watched Riley dump her bags into the back of her car. 

Caroline tilted her head with a look of sadness on her face. "I really miss you being here, you know, but I understand why you had to leave. And, I'm so proud of you." 

"Yeah. Yeah, I needed to leave for me. I've never been happier, to be honest." Riley smiled. "You can come and stay whenever you like. There's loads of bars here, it would be one hell of a girls night." The witch suggestively spoke, noticing a small grin appear on the blonde vampire's face. 

"I might have to take you up on that offer. A summer in New Orleans with my best friend, I can't imagine anything better." Caroline cheered, though the sound of Elena wandering into her dorm room caused her face to drop. "I think that I should—"

"—Yeah, I need to get going anyway. Bye, Care." Riley heard the sound of the call end, and sighed in relief. 

Riley grabbed her jacket from the beside herself on the couch, slipped it on and headed out of her apartment. There was a small record store on the corner of the street just a short distance from her apartment that Riley often made a habit of looking in. As she pushed open the door, Joe give her a comfortable wave before he turned his attention back to the young girl he was serving. 

Whilst Riley attempted to block out Joe's innocent conversation with the brunette teen, her eyes scanned the array of records placed in front of her.  "Don't I know you?" Riley's eyes flickered up and locked with an unfamiliar man. It was clear that the witch had absolutely no recollection of ever meeting him before.

"Uh, I don't think so." Riley spoke back with a soft, awkward chuckle as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She couldn't work out whether he was perhaps using it as an approach to pick up girls, or if he genuinely had thought the two had crossed paths before. 

"My mistake. Nice to meet you, though." He extended his hand out toward her, a smile on his face. "I'm Kaleb."

The witch placed her hand within his, shaking it gently. "Riley." She answered back but immediately noticed a look of recollection wash over him, almost as though her name had confirmed their previous encounters. 

Kaleb cleared his throat and shook himself from his thoughts, letting a smile wash over his face once more. "I'll see you around, Riley." He brushed past her, before he set his sights on the brunette teen Joe was talking to prior. 

Noticing the smitten look on the young teenage girl's face once Kaleb left the store, she chuckled to herself. Riley knew that feeling all too well. 

Almost as soon as Kaleb walked out of the door, another man entered. He had dirty blonde hair, and immediately hostile attitude. His attention was immediately fixed on the girl, who's smile had soon dropped once he entered. "Hey there, cutie." Even Riley's skin began to crawl as he greeted her.

"Don't call me that." 

Riley watched the man simply pull the vinyl out of the young girls hand and glance over it. "So, I heard that you ditched your coven. That's too bad." The word Coven immediately caused Riley's interest to pique— the girl was a witch, like her. "That other Harvest girl, Cassie? She has been super helpful to all us wolves."

"She's making you moonlight rings, Oliver. I wouldn't call that helpful. I'd call that an alliance."

"Well, you can call it whatever you want. As long as we don't have to turn on the full moon anymore, it works for me." Oliver moved closer to her, lowering his tone of voice once he noticed Riley seemed a little too interested in their conversation. "Look, I'd take off if I were you. Things are about to get a little ugly in here." His gaze turned to the rest of the customers. "Hey, y'all? The store's closed. Get out, now!"

Riley watched the few customers in the store quickly put back whatever vinyl that they were looking at before they darted out of the store by the man's orders. She, however, was going to stay.

"Hey. What are you doing?" Joe's gaze met Oliver's.

"It's Joe Dalton, right? You see, I've been studying up on this store. It's been a staple of the Quarter for ninety years. It was run by you, your daddy, and his daddy before him?"

"That's right."

"Yeah, you see the thing is, Joe, there just ain't many photos of anyone in your family but you." Oliver dropped, what appeared to be, an old photograph on the counter.

"Oliver, no!" The teenage witch exclaimed just before Joe sped toward the entrance, attempting to leave the store but he was shoved inside by two more wolves.

The strawberry-blonde extended her hand and caused a pain infliction spell to take hold of Joe's werewolf attackers just before they were about to bite him. They grabbed hold of their heads, dropping to their knees whilst the teenage witch gasped in amazement.  "Joe, get out of here!" She told him with a stern tone of voice just before he disappeared. "You— you're a witch?" 

Riley nodded, then set her sights back to the werewolves at their feet. "A word of advice to you all. Leave. Otherwise I'll do more than make your blood vessels pop. You got me?" The witch heard no response apart from cries of pain. "I said, you got me?" 

"Yes! Yes, okay." Oliver panted desperately, his hands tangled within his matted dirty-blonde locks. "Just stop."

Riley shrugged in response, hearing sighs of relief as she stopped the spell. Oliver and the rest of the wolves were quick to pick themselves up from the dusty floor of the store before they disappeared. 

"Thank you." The teenage girl smiles innocently toward Riley before she grabbed her vinyl once more. "I'm Davina, by the way."

"Riley." She introduced herself as the two headed out of the store. "Oh, and don't mention it. It's lovely to meet you someone like me, you know?" Riley lowered her voice, noticing the sudden influx of people on the street.

"Hey, look, I should really get back home. But, I'd really love to catch up with you again at some point." Davina started to wander in the other direction, her eyes fixed on Riley, who nodded in agreement. "Great. Bye, Riley."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── 

The one thing Riley hated about living without, was the constant feeling of being alone which was why she spent a lot of her free time at Rousseau's. She and Camille, the blonde bartender had become fast friends when Riley first moved to New Orleans only a few weeks ago. Cami reminded Riley a lot of Caroline; she was headstrong, loyal and a good sounding board with the occasional personal opinion thrown in for good measure, too. 

With her mind wandering with thoughts of her friends, Riley didn't even seem to notice that someone had slipped into the seat opposite her until her eyes locked with a familiar set of blue ones. "You're a long way from home, love." His thick British accent rang through her ears, though Riley blinked in complete shock, unable to even fathom that the Original Hybrid was sat across from her.

Riley hummed, clearly too stunned to actually speak. After a few moments she let the reality of her situation wash over her before she finally nodded. "Yeah. It's kind of the whole point, to be honest."

"I had heard, upon my last visit to Mystic Falls, that you had flown the nest, shall we say?" The Hybrid mused and then tilted his head with a look of intrigue. "And, of all the cities you've chosen to take up residence, you've picked mine."

"New Orleans isn't exactly shy about its link to the supernatural, is it?" Riley's response made Klaus purse his lips, before a soft chuckle escaped them. 

"Yes, well, I suppose not."

"Truthfully, I didn't know you were living here until a few days ago when I—" The strawberry-blonde innocently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, softening her tone of voice. "—I saw the memorial on the street for your little girl. I'm so sorry for your loss." 

Klaus was immediately taken by surprise and genuinely appreciative of the girl's condolences. "Thank you." Another soft sigh left his lips. "I'm sure I'm not the welcoming committee you would have desired once you learned my family was living here."

Riley's brows knitted together, curiously. "Who—"

"Elijah was always very fond of you, wasn't he?" 

"He's here, too?" The witch's entire body tensed up at the thought of seeing Elijah again. She had always felt something toward him. There was an undeniable spark between the two, though she thought better to ignore it because of Damon. 

The Original Hybrid nodded, a slight smirk across his lips once he heard the rapid beat of her heart the moment he mentioned Elijah's name. "You still care for him." 

Riley didn't respond. Of course she cared about Elijah, but she refused to let herself get close to anyone the way that she had before. If the past had taught her one thing, it was that she would be better off on her own. 

Klaus' phone ringing from his inner jacket pocket caused the conversation to come to an abrupt end. He pulled it out, examining the caller ID with furrowed brows before he rolled his eyes and left Riley sitting alone at the table in Rousseau's. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── 

AN: 
hi!! so this is the first chapter of descent and I'm honestly really excited about this one. I always loved the idea of Riley and Elijah as a pairing.
however, this book is an AU and Riley left Mystic Falls at the end of season 3.
descent will not effect anything to do with absolution, and in terms of that book, Riley and Damon are very much still together.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to dm me :)
I hope you guys enjoy! x