CHAPTER SIX | OUT OF THE EASY

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PANIC ABOUT REBEKAH'S WHEREABOUTS SENT SHOCKWAVES THROUGH THE MIKALESON FAMILY. After being ordered to come home and abandon her quest to find a way to resurrect Kol, Rebekah was cornered by Aya and staked before she had a chance to head back to her family. A locator spell proved useless when Freya and Riley announced whatever witch had lured Rebekah into the trap and seemingly made it impossible for them to track her and so they needed a new plan.

"Welcome to our home." Elijah greeted immediately once he and Riley stepped out onto the balcony which overlooked the courtyard. There was a table for a Thanksgiving meal set in the centre whilst Aurora, Tristan, Lucien and Klaus all greeted each other below. "I do wish it was under better circumstances. We all face a common threat— a prophecy warning that my siblings and I would all fall within a year. I fear my sister already has."

Tristan shook his head once Elijah and Riley finally reached the courtyard. "Only as a precautionary measure, I assure you."

"Precautionary? If we're being honest, putting Rebekah down was incredibly unnecessary. We all want to prevent this prophecy from coming to pass, so surely the best thing to do would be to stand together."

"Exactly that, my dear." Elijah beamed, then smiled back to their guests. "And since any alliance is impossible without honesty, let us begin this evening's proceedings by formally acknowledging your clandestine alliance."

Lucien shifted uncomfortable at the mention of his partnership with Tristan. "Now, gentlemen, before—"

"—Sh. Sh. Sh. Sh. Sh. Lucien, please." Elijah was quick to silence Klaus' first sired. "Let's not ruin the dinner before it begins."

"And do try to bear in mind, we expect an honest and production negotiation this evening." 

"Shall we begin?" The three uncomfortably walked toward the table to take their seats which left Riley, Klaus and Elijah to give silent looks to each other before they joined the table. 

"It's a bit odd, isn't it?" Lucien spoke up once an array of compelled waiters placed food onto the table. "Celebrating an American holiday?"

"Well, you know, Lucien, I rather enjoy Thanksgiving. The turkey, the cranberry sauce. The lies, the deceit, the betrayal." Elijah's eyes glanced around the table. "Perhaps we should begin this evening's proceedings with a little confusion, and do help yourselves."

"So, this entire dinner is meant to be some boorish inquisition?" Aurora sighed with a pointed look on her face, whilst Riley innocently sipped her wine. "How rude."

"Nonsense, love. My brother merely wishes to make certain we are all on the same page. So, who would like to begin?"

"Well, Lucien and I have always loathed each other. Had we arrived as allies with news of a bleak future, you would have doubted us." Tristan explained toward Klaus, who remained straight-faced. "We sought to remove suspicion by maintaining appearances."

Riley scoffed underneath her breath, quietly coughing as all eyes moved to her. "Sorry! Sorry. I just—" Riley giggled, her eyes fell to Tristan. "Do you honestly expect them to believe that?"

Lucien rolled his eyes. "The bottom line is, we came to protect you and ourselves. We have never wavered on this point."

"And the bodies on my streets, is that your protection, as well?" The Hybrid's tone grew harsher as he addressed his first sired.

"It's business as usual for The Strix."

"An old tactic used often and to great success. Jack the Ripper, Son of sam— a frightened human populace is that much easier to control. If tourism should decline and the local vampires are deprived of fresh blood, well, you saw how quickly Marcel joined our ranks."

"Well, if one wanted to obtain a certain item in, say, a private collection but one was not invited to the home where said private collection was located, police investigation could come in very handy to remove these items as evidence." Lucien smirked with his wine glass in hand.

"The medallion." Riley trailed off as she watched Tristan and Lucien both immediately tense up. They were not aware they new the name of the weapon they planned to activate.

"I suppose it was my sister who shared that bit of information." Tristan glared harshly toward Aurora, who lowered her head in guilt.

"Don't blame Aurora." Klaus was quick to interject. "You two are hardly conspiratorial geniuses."

Aurora smirked, almost impressed that Klaus was so quick to defend her whilst Lucien sighed. "Funny story. It turns out all along that the medallion was in the hands of Nik's friend, Camille, the bartender-slash-therapist." Riley noticed the red head's face immediately fall at the mention of another women. "Had to get her arrested in order to search her goodies, so to speak. But, I would never allow any harm to come to her, knowing the great affection you have for her."

Klaus simply ignored the looks of betrayal and confusion Aurora sent him. "A medallion that could lock us away. Hardly seems like a wise strategy for those come to protect us." The Hybrid leaned forward. "Hand it over."

"And release Rebekah." Elijah continued, his eyes firmly on Aurora.

"Uh, just a tick. Aurora has Rebekah?"

She shrugged toward Lucien as a smile appeared on her lips. "No reason why I shouldn't be trusted with my sire's safety.

"Of course." Uncomfortably, Lucien reached for his wine and swiftly sighed. "Unless you were to have one of your episodes." 

"Easy, Lucien. My sister sought leverage to protect herself. Who among us would do otherwise?"

"Is anyone else bored?" Riley's eyes flickered between Elijah and Klaus with a heavy sigh. "This would've been so much easier if you could just compel them." 

Soft giggles erupted from the three's mouths which caused Klaus' face to harden. "I'm sorry. Did Riley say something amusing?"

"We lost a century to compulsion, my love." Aurora's gaze then snapped toward Klaus' brother. "And some of us lost a great deal more. Surely you can't believe we'd allow ourselves to come here vulnerable."

"My dearest Aurora, compulsion is not my only party trick." 

"I do not like these threats!"

"Our continued existence depends on the Mikaelsons." Tristan interjected with the intention of defusing the hostile atmosphere. "We've known that since Finn and Kol died. Unfortunately, so does every other vampire in the world. Given that the sire lines have declared war against one another, you can imagine how many young upstarts have come to the same conclusion— kill an Original, wipe out an entire line of rivals." His gaze flickered between Klaus and Elijah while Riley swallowed thickly. "Heavy burden, isn't it? The lives of thousands of sired vampires resting on your shoulders? In a perfect world, you'd allow us to seal you away forever, thus eliminating the threat."

"Fortunately, the world is far from perfect." The Hybrid viciously sneered. 

"Let's just get down to it, shall we?" Riley placed her empty wine glass on the table and harshly glared toward the woman across from her. "Aurora. Rebekah—"

"—Aurora is quite aware of our desire to see Rebekah home, and I'm sure she'll do everything in her power to oblige." Klaus loudly cut Riley off, his eyes fixed on Aurora with a smile. 

The sound of Freya's footsteps carried into the courtyard as all attention fell to her. "We're welcoming our enemies to the dinner table now?" She stopped beside Aurora with a vicious look. "Convenient, given she's the one who has the answers I want." 

"Oh, for heaven's sake." Aurora slammed her hand against the dining table and lifted herself up to her feet. "Now I have to deal with the long-lost sister? Nik, please spare me your family's rage and paranoia. It is exactly this kind of lunacy which led me to steal Rebekah in the first place."

"Cut to the damn chase. What have you done with her?" The Evans vampire snapped.

"Oh, I'm sorry, love, but this prophecy has you all acting as fools and I've no intention of risking my life to foolishness. Now, I can't trust Rebekah with any of you, and I certainly can't trust the silly dear to endure on her own, so I decided to put her someplace safe. Imagine a spot where no harm could come to her. Where, in fact, no one could possibly even track her down. Yes, rest assured, Rebekah is perfectly fine... at the bottom of the ocean."

Gobsmacked, the room immediately fell silent at Aurora's revelation. Klaus and Elijah shared alarmed looks whilst Riley's breath hitched in her throat. "You're bluffing." Aurora shook her head. "Tell me you're bluffing."

"Oh, you should all be thanking me." Aurora yelled out in annoyance as she received nothing but horrified stares. "Rebekah's never been safer. She has plenty of company down there. With all the little crabs, and octopus, and—"

Klaus' hand slamming against the table cut Aurora off. But, before he was able to let his rage get the better of him, Tristan sped over to Freya and held a knife to her throat. "Harm my sister, and I'll be forced to return the favour."

Rolling her eyes, Riley sighed. "Motus." She used her magic to toss Tristan away from Freya whilst Elijah intervened and pinned him against the wall. 

"Well, this all escalated very quickly."

"Shut up, Lucien, or I'll tear your tongue from your head!" Klaus' voice boomed again.

"Be careful with your threats, Nik. Anything should happen to me, I won't be able to protect your precious Cami." Lucien shot the Hybrid a smirk.

"Okay. That is the second time I've heard her name. Just who is this Cami?"

"You have bigger problems!" Freya extended her hand and caused Aurora's neck to snap within an instant. 

"Niklaus. Which of these two vulgar parasites would you first like to torture?" Elijah's voice carried as he led Tristan back toward the table.

"Well, it's half a dozen of one and six of the other, isn't it?" Klaus clapped his hands together then patted Lucien's shoulders, causing him to swallow thickly. "Why don't you take the stable boy? Tristan and I are long overdue a good catch up. Oh, and if anything happens to Camille—"

"—He knows." Riley interjected, folding her arms across her chest. "I'll be forced to make him suffer in ways his pathetic little mind couldn't even imagine."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── 

Aurora's head gently bobbed up and down before she finally awoke to the smell of the smudge stick Freya had wafted around the study. "Took you long enough." The Mikaelson witch sighed.

"Oh. Are we to play a fun game?" Aurora feigned surprise and plastered a smirk upon her lips. Riley couldn't tell whether it was fake, or if the vampire genuinely wasn't scared.

"Well, yeah. Freya's cast a spell to make sure that nobody in the compound can hear what happens in here." Riley smiled toward Aurora just as Hayley stepped into the room beside her. "Excited?"

"Hayley. The mother of Niklaus' child. Ooh, I was really hoping I'd get to meet you."

Hayley rolled her eyes and tilted her head. "Feeling's not mutual." 

"Oh." Looking almost a little hurt, Aurora shrugged off Hayley's comment. "Okay, so then what, pray tell, are we doing here?"

Riley chuckled softly as she began to gather her hair up into a messy bun. "You're gonna tell us exactly where to find Rebekah, or we're gonna kill you. Slowly." 

The strawberry-blonde vampire used all of her strength to smack Aurora straight across the face, causing her to stumble back. Though, Aurora only chuckled in response. "You're quite strong, for an infant."

As she brushed the blood from her nose, Freya extended her hands and caused a pain infliction spell. The De Martel vampire cried out in anguish and dropped to her knees until she used her strength to throw Freya away from her. She began to attack Hayley, though the Hybrid blocked her until Aurora managed to shove her back, too.

Riley glanced back at the two, making sure they were okay, before she extended her hands and tried the spell Freya did. After a few seconds, she released it and Aurora gasped. "Whoo! That actually hurt. Oh, I haven't felt pain since the seventeen-hundreds. Kind of tickles. And for that, I'm gonna make you suffer."

Aurora lunged and Riley, but Hayley caught her by the throat. "How about a werewolf bite, you psychotic, little bitch?" 

"By all means if only I can laugh in your face from Nik heals me." Hayley rolled her eyes, punched Aurora in the gut and shoved her against the wall again. 

"I don't think Klaus would heal Tristan, perhaps you should bite him instead, Hayley."

"No one should dare harm my brother." Aurora breathlessly took a few steps forward the three girls. "Seeing as you're all going to need him if you want your precious Rebekah back. You see, while I did ensure that Rebekah was dropped in the ocean, I don't know precisely where. I had some old friends do it for me, and then I killed them. I have the location in two envelopes. Mine contains the latitude. Tristan's? The longitude. If you want to find Rebekah, you need us both. So, tell me, girls, who has the advantage now?"

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───