Hopelessly Devoted | Hale- TO/TW [6]

14 | Bigger Problems

Hayley rushes into the compound to find Jackson standing over Freya who is lying on the couch with her arm in a sling. "I just got your text, what happened?"

"She got jumped," Jackson explains. "Three vampires, all dressed like yuppies."

"Strix?" Hayley asks.

"Yeah."

Suddenly, Jackson is thrown to the ground by an invisible force. He grunts and picks his head up to see a furious blonde in front of him. "What did you do to my sister?" Lexi demands.

Hayley helps him up and glares at Lexi. "Not his fault! She was jumped, Lexi."

Lexi growls, her eyes burning red. She takes a step forward only to have two dark haired werewolves jump in front of her to stop her. "Calm down, Lex," Cora warns, already in a defensive position.

Lexi lets her eyes fade, her glare still focused on Jackson. "You should know better than to leave this family and expect to be welcomed back into the fold. You left, Jackson Kenner."

"And he's back." Derek reminds her, grabbing her hand gently. "Let's forget about it, ok? Focus on Freya?"

Lexi glances at him before sighing. "Aren't you going to give her your blood, Hayley?" Lexi looks at Hayley, a fierce expression on her face.

Hayley nods hesitantly before sitting next to Freya and offering her a bloody wrist. The witch gladly drinks before sighing deeply. "You alright, sister?" Lexi questions softly. Freya nods in response.

"Kind of hard to ignore it when someone needs your help, huh?" Hayley whispers into Jackson's ear. He makes a face, rolling his eyes.

He opens his mouth to respond, but Freya beats him to it. "They took it. The Serratura," she says, eyes wide with panic. She pulls herself up before explaining, "I was meeting with a witch from the bloodline who built the lock. I was hoping she would help me destroy it, but it's not possible. She said the only way to get rid of it is to use it. We have to get it back and lock something else away. Anything but my family."

Cora groans, "Great. How about we pay Tristan a visit?" Lexi and Derek turn to her, identical looks of discomfort on their faces. "I'll ask nicely?" Cora tries, sending them an innocent smile.

"I'm afraid," Elijah walks into the courtyard, a grave expression on his face. "We have a far more urgent problem."

He looks over to the entrance as Lexi catches a familiar scent, though it seems darker somehow.

A blonde walks into the room, looking pale and tired. Rebekah puts on a smile and says, "Well, to be fair, I am the prettiest urgent problem you have ever seen."

—|—|—|—

Freya stands over the other blondes as Lexi carefully inspects a skull engraving on Rebekah's wrist. The others watch from the sidelines, Derek and Elijah closer than the others.

Rebekah sees the grave look on Lexi's face and sighs in frustration. "Give me the bad news, Doc." She mocks.

Lexi rolls her eyes, "Aya's stake was cursed. It infected you. As this mark grows, you will go mad. Left unchecked..." Lexi trails off, a strange look crossing into her eyes.

Freya mistakes the hesitation for discomfort. "Left unchecked, you will become a relentless, unstoppable ripper," she says bluntly.

"Aya always was thorough," Rebekah mutters.

"The Strix always employ a safeguard," Lexi sighs.

"In the event that we were successful in retrieving your body, you were cursed," Elijah explains, thinking out loud.