After A Thousand Years | Esther Mikaelson

Chapter Eight

 "And you're sure this Alaric Saltzman is going to do as he's told?" Elisabet asked.

 "I'm certain of it," Rebekah/Esther replied.

 "And no one is going to know who you really are?"

 "I've already fooled Niklaus, Lise, and I would have fooled you if I hadn't tell you the truth. Now, come inside."

 Klaus was in the living room, painting. When they came in, Klaus asked, "What took you so long?"

 "Alaric didn't want to hand over the stake." Rebekah/Esther held it up. "Luckily, I'm quite the charmer."

 Klaus promptly took the stake from her and tossed it into the fireplace.

 "Well, that's that, then," she said, staring at the fireplace.

 "Pack your bags," Klaus snapped. "We're leaving."

 "Today?"

 "You running from something?" Elisabet asked.

 "Well, why not? There's nothing keeping us here. We'll grab the doppelganger and be off by sunset."

 "But tonight is the decade dance," Rebekah/Esther pointed out.

 "So?" Klaus asked. 

 "So, I'm head of the committee. We have to go." 

 "I'm not going to any dance," Klaus said decidedly.

 "Caroline will be there."

 "That means nothing to me."

 "Please, I have big plans for tonight," she pleaded. "Just go for me."

 Klaus looked at Elisabet. "Do you agree with her?"

 Elisabet, who wasn't following the conversation entirely, just shrugged. "I don't know. Um, she did say something about an important dance. You should go, because it, um, it does sound important."

 He sighed. "Okay, fine. One last hoorah."

 Rebekah/Esther smiled. "One last hoorah, Nik."  

 After they had left the room, and were at a safe distance, she whispered to Elisabet, "See? Completely oblivious."

 She nodded. "Clearly, there are things about Rebekah's social life she didn't bother to mention to me."

 Elisabet followed her cousin to a room where Alaric Saltzman was waiting for them. He was just finishing up a phone call, and Elisabet knew he probably had to lie to his friends about all of this.

 "Quite the cunning liar," Rebekah/Esther said as they entered the room.

 "Well, Damon is too arrogant to think that his only friend would betray him," Alaric said.

 She sighed. "Just as Niklaus would blindly accept an invitation from his beloved sister, unaware that he is heading to his own death."

 "But now that you've set that in motion," Elisabet asked, "What do we do now?"

 "You'll see." She dipped her dagger in what Elisabet knew was white oak ash.

 "Did you guys give him the stake?" Alaric asked.

 "He burned it without any hesitation," Rebekah/Esther replied. 

 "So, where's the real one?"

 "You'll get it when it can no longer be used against me in this body."

 She lifted open one of the coffin lids, revealing Esther's own body to be lying inside. 

 Alaric started to ask, "But how do you-"

 "How do I return to my true form?" she said, which was actually what Elisabet had been wondering. "With a little magic and some help from a vampire hunter like you."

 Elisabet raised her eyebrows at that. She hadn't mentioned that Alaric Saltzman happened to be a vampire hunter.

 Rebekah/Esther handed him the dagger, which he proceeded to stab her in the chest with. Rebekah's body collapsed to the floor, while inside the coffin, Esther opened her eyes.

 "Wonderful." She sat up.

 "Well...that's great," Alaric said. "So, is that it?"

 She smiled. "Of course not. Lise, come along with us, will you? Unless you would prefer to go to Rebekah's dance."

 "Well, it looks like she's going to miss the dance, anyway," Elisabet said, looking down at the unconscious body. "Where are we going?"

 "The old cemetery. It's the perfect place."

 Elisabet sighed. Another old cemetery.

~~~~~~

 Lise tasted blood. That was woke her up.

 She was in a dark mausoleum, chained up in a coffin.

 "Mikael?" she murmured.

 "Yes, I'm here." Her vision swam into focus, and she could see he was standing over her.

 "Are we still in the cemetery?" she asked. "What time is it?"

 "I have no idea." He pulled the chains apart and lifted her up out of the coffin. "You're still weak."

 "Did someone come to get us?"

 "Yes, that young woman," he said, gesturing to the girl on the floor. "Name's Katherine Pierce. Nasty thing, from what I know. Come on, let's go. We'll take her and find something to feed on. We need to figure out where we are, how long it's been, and what to do next."

~~~~~~

 "Why are we here?" Alaric asked as they walked through the old cemetery.

 "Long ago," Esther said, "On this spot, my son tore my heart from my chest. The violence of my death marked this ground for all time."

 Elisabet shuddered at the memory of that night.

 They entered a tomb where she watched as Esther and Alaric each stood on opposite sides of a bowl.

 "I'll need your ring," Esther said to him.

 "Now, why would I give you the one ring that protects me from death?" he asked.

 "I will give you all the protection you need," she answered. "However, the stake will burn up in the body of its first victim. If you are to kill all of my children, I will need to bind the protective magic in your ring to the stake, thus rendering the white oak indestructible."

 Alaric handed over the ring, and Elisabet watched as Esther mixed together everything in the bowl and began to chant a spell. All of the molten metal came together with the white oak, forming a new stake.

 "There," she said. "The ultimate weapon for the ultimate hunter. Lise, watch him, will you? I must find the doppelganger for my spell. I don't believe he'll get himself into any trouble, but just in case." 

 Elisabet stood silently as Esther left, but with a new sense of fury. She was going to use this Alaric Saltzman as an Original-killing hunter. She kept saying that Alaric was going to kill her children, but what about Elisabet? She was an Original, too. She was still apart of the family, whether or not Mikael was the only one who truly acknowledged that.

 "Can you stay here and look after yourself?" she asked Alaric.

 He shrugged. "It doesn't look like I have much of a choice."

 "Good. I may or may not be back later."

 And she stormed off in search of an explanation.