Rue | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 23

She woke up to Vincent shaking her.

She didn't dream. Didn't feel time passing. All she saw and felt was darkness. The feeling of her body being moved in a vehicle to a location she didn't know about. Slowly drifting further and further away from home. From safety.

"Ibeth!" he cried, desperately wiggling her body to try and rouse her. "Ibeth, please, you gotta wake up... please..."

"Stop that," she groaned, trying to swat his hands away, only to find that her wrists were bound together. "Why—?"

Then she remembered. Lucien. Aurora. The kidnapping.

Those fuckers.

She took a moment to register her surroundings. She was still in Lucien's car, but it was now parked in a clearing of an unfamiliar forest. Aurora wasn't with them. Freya was on the other side of her, dazed and also waking up from having been knocked unconscious. Wherever they were, it was isolated and quiet. Deadly quiet.

"Where are we?" whispered Ibeth. "Why—?"

There was no time for Vincent to respond. "Grab Freya," Lucien commanded as he opened the back door and yanked Ibeth out. "Follow me."

Vincent obediently dragged Freya with him, forcing her to follow Lucien as he tugged Ibeth further into the forest.

"So this was your plan all along?" whispered Ibeth weakly as he pulled her forward. "All the flirting, all the meetings, the vision, you just wanted this to be the outcome?"

"I'm surprised you didn't expect it," said Lucien pompously. "Then again, clever as you are, you are quite malleable once someone gives you the attention you hunger so badly for. You let your guard down and, well, now here we are."

"Why bring the three of us here? What is this place?"

"Ideally, it would just be the two of us. But, because your child does not have a witch gene... Freya had to come along. And Vincent, well, he's a necessary evil. Here to keep you and your sister-in-law in check should you misbehave."

"Yeah," said Vincent angrily, "you're leaving out the part where I ain't exactly here of my own volition, man. The Ancestors must have lost their damn minds!"

"Quite the opposite," said Lucien with a smile. "I've never dealt with a saner bunch. See, when I arrived in New Orleans, I made them a deal. Upon my request, they would grant me access to the Regent. And, in exchange, I'd provide for them a world without the Originals. Didn't take much convincing." He nudged Freya and Ibeth, "They do despise your family. Ah... we're here."

They stopped in front of a stone basin sitting upon a rock. "Yeah," said Vincent, confused, "but where the hell is 'here,' man?"

Lucien gasped. "What? How disappointing! Two powerful witches who cannot sense when you're treading on hallowed ground? Welcome... to Mystic Falls. The place where it all began. Where Esther Mikaelson created the vampire species. Under the shade of the infamous white oak tree, she crafted the spell that turned each of her children... and I mean to replicate that spell. I have everything I need to become what I deserve to be."

Vincent's eyes widened. "You want to become an Original."

Lucien scoffed. "Do I look like the sort who'd settle for some shoddy Original model? I intend to be an upgrade."

"You're insane to think I'd ever help you craft any spell!" cried Freya.

"Freya," said Ibeth weakly, "I don't think you're here to craft it."

"Precisely," said Lucien with a wicked grin. "Vincent will handle the spell. From you, I need something a bit more intimate. You can blame your nephew for being only a hybrid and not a tribrid."