Dark Moon | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 79

This had to be one of the worst birthdays ever.

Esmeray woke up in the morning, now twenty-three, and nothing was different. Their situation hadn't improved. Everyone was in a bad mood. She felt guilty for wanting to celebrate when everything was so shitty.

"Good morning, sweet girl," she said when she came down to find Klaus and Hope having breakfast. Klaus didn't look too happy, and judging by the footsteps she could hear in the next hallway, Elijah must have come to speak to him.

"Esme!" Hope giggled, reaching her arms out to her. The werewitch picked her up and kissed Klaus's forehead before sitting beside him.

"Happy birthday, love," he said, taking her hand. "I apologize... I haven't yet gotten you your present."

"It's okay, you don't need to get me anything," she said, digging into the beignets on the table.

"Birth," Hope said, sitting on Esmeray's lap and patting the table. "Birthday."

"Yep," said Esmeray, smiling down at her. "Your birthday is coming up soon, too. A little over a month, and you'll be two!"

"You're two," Hope replied, and Esmeray figured that she was inquiring about her age.

"I'm twenty-three today," said Esmeray. "But in reality, I'm one thousand twenty-seven years older than you, not just twenty-one."

Hope giggled, apparently finding this amusing. She flinched, however, when there was the sound of a thud upstairs, then rushed footsteps, before Kol bolted into the room. "We've got a bloody problem," he said worriedly.

"What is it now?" asked Klaus, exasperated.

"An apparent army of your sirelings are making their way to New Orleans as we speak."

Okay, so, emergency situation not long after Esmeray had finished her first and only beignet of the day. Fucking great.

The werewitch rushed upstairs to get Hope to Hayley while Klaus and Kol went to tell Elijah so they could assemble their weapons. Esmeray went to ask Freya what spell she was doing so she could know what else to help with. Since Freya was in the process of tracking each of the sirelings, Esmeray decided she ought to get started on a Protective Spell of the Compound.

She moved with her materials into the dining room, and had only just started the spell when another series of thuds sounded, and with her brows furrowed, she stepped out into the Compound at the same time as the three brothers, leaving them all surrounded as a horde of vampires flooded into the Compound, surrounding them.

Initially, all seemed fine. There had to be close to two hundred vampires there. But with the combined strength of Klaus, Kol, and Elijah, plus spells from Esmeray, this would have been an easy fight.

Wrong.

"Never thought it would come to this," came a familiar voice at the entrance. The four turned to see Marcel making his way up to them. "But as always, the Mikaelsons made my choice for me."

"Marcel?" Esmeray breathed, staring at him in disbelief. "But you—

Klaus looked like he'd seen a ghost. "How are you—?"

"How are we in your home?" he asked, looking around. "I've friends who can nullify a deed, foreclose on a property, like that." He snapped his fingers for effect. "Or did you mean... how am I not a rotting corpse?"

"I thought my friend was dead, and yet here you are," said the hybrid. "So send these fools away, and let's talk. You and me."

"Is that relief I hear?" asked Marcel, moving closer to his sire. "Really? If I hadn't been one step ahead of you, I would be at the bottom of the river."