New Beginnings in New Orleans || Marcel Gerard

Chapter 18: Dating A Runaway Man?

Chapter Eighteen

I winced at Hayley slapped Sabine/Celeste. Then she stepped back in the middle line of me and some slightly older woman named Eve. It turns out kidnapping a witch was easy. Hayley and I found her just outside of the sanatorium where my new acquaintance hit her over the head, successfully knocking her out in one blow. The harder part was helping her carry the body to my car, tying up her wrists, and shoving her over the car seats in the backseat.

The drive to the bayou was long. And it meant another night away from my kids. Thankfully, Cami was able to stay with them for me. Now it was early in the morning. She didn't have work until this afternoon, so hopefully I got home with answers before then. If not she would have to drop them off with the sitter again while I also, again, missed work. Not that my boss minded.

However, the drive let me and Hayley get to know each other. To my surprise she wasn't a vampire but instead a werewolf. She wanted Celeste because she inhabited a witch of the Deveraux blood line that cursed her pack—or what would have been her pack. Instead she was adopted and raised by human parents. Since she triggered the curse to become a wolf she's searched for her family, and finally traced them to New Orleans. Now Celeste was the only one who could undo the curse.

"So what's this, payback?" Sabine/Celeste scoffed. "Look. I'm sorry I tricked you. I wasn't after you."

"What, and we were just collateral damage? You almost burned her and Jackson alive in that plantation fire," Eve said. My eyes widened. Hayley didn't mention that. I didn't even know who Jackson was. But I did recall the fact Celeste gave Elijah the choice to save Hayley, Rebekah or Klaus. I guess that was saving Hayley from a house fire while his siblings got kidnapped.

Celeste was struggling against the tree we bound her to. Hands tied around it, her back to the tall trunk. I jumped as Hayley sent off a shot from her shotgun. A warning. "Careful, Sabine, or Celeste or whatever you like to call yourself. Sudden moves make me jumpy. And homicidal," Hayley told her.

"What, you're gonna kill me, honey?"

"No. I know better. See, I know all about you. I know that you like to off yourself and then jump into other people's bodies. Well, that's not gonna happen here. I know I can't kill you, but try hexing me, and my friends here will kneecap you. Go for them, and then, well, I'll really make it hurt," Hayley threatened.

"So, what do you want?" Celeste asked after a moment, hostility dying down.

"Back in the 90s, you inhabited a witch named Brynne Deveraux, remember?" Hayley questioned, pausing. Celeste didn't answer just shifted her eyes to the ground. "Marcel had her— you—put a curse on a lot of werewolves so they'd only turn human on a full moon."

"I see. Yes. That was me. Let me guess. You want revenge."

"No," I piped up. "I think Marcel has enough revenge headed his way."

"I just want you to undo the curse," Hayley said.

Celeste ignored her, narrowing her eyes on me, "And who are you?"

"Gemma O'Connell. Your bitch friend hexed my uncle and you're going to tell me how to save him or I will kill you in this body and the next and the next," I warned stepping close to her.

She raised her eyebrows, "I'm not the witch you need to kill."

"Bastiana has to die?" I asked.

"Gemma—" Hayley chimed in.

"Bastiana's life force is what's powering the hex. Which is why Kieran is getting worse by the minute. Kill her and it buys you some time for step two," Celeste told me.