Blue ▹ The Originals [2]

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

"It's hard to say you need to be forgiven."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     Freya and Henrik worked for hours, pouring through dozens of grimoires and calling countless of their witch contacts in other cities, states, and countries. They tried mixing spells, they tried to create a new one together, but they couldn't create something that would be fast enough to save Cami. The only thing they had was Henrik's spell for a cure, but even he knew that it would require weeks—perhaps even months—to collect all of the ingredients, namely all seven strains of venom. Besides, he hadn't written up the spell itself yet, nor had he figured out what other ingredients he needed to bind everything together. There simply wasn't enough time to save Cami. They had already tried Lucien's blood, which Cami had managed to spill in her apartment before she had escaped. They were running out of options and they were running out of time.

Their last option was Hope. Henrik had been gentle when he got her blood with a syringe, mumbling a spell under his breath to minimize any pain she might have felt when the needle entered her arm. She didn't let out a sound, just stared at him with wide eyes. Henrik pressed a kiss to her cheek before hurrying back upstairs. Freya had put a poultice on Cami's bite to minimize her pain and slow the infection, but it had caught up to her despite it. Klaus had put her to sleep in his bed. He'd been glued to her side ever since, inserting himself into her dreams. Spending one last day together. Henrik avoided looking at him every time he entered the room, and he did the same now. He had a horrible, hopeless feeling that his brother was about to get his heart broken, and that was a feeling he didn't want to acknowledge.

He bent over Cami and injected Hope's blood into her arm. He hadn't had much hope when his niece's blood was suggested, yet he was still disappointed when the blood didn't seem to do anything. He let out a shaky sigh and tossed the syringe aside, sitting down on the edge of the bed and putting his face in his hands. Elijah was standing so still that Henrik was slightly concerned, while Freya couldn't be still to save her life. She kept pacing, anxiety waving off of her. Out of everyone in that compound, Henrik was probably the one who knew Cami the least, yet he couldn't help but feeling panic and grief. She had always been so sweet, always shooting him a smile when they were around each other. He knew what she meant to Klaus. He knew what she meant to Elijah and Hayley and Davina and Marcel. He knew that she didn't deserve this. He just wished he knew how to save her.

"Anything?" Henrik turned at the new voice, releasing another breath when he saw that it was Vincent. He straightened and stared at the carpet beneath his feet, his mind racing.

"We've tried everything that we could think of, including the power that resides in the blood of our niece," Freya whispered. She was on the verge of tears, her voice cracking. "Lucien's blood didn't work, and it doesn't look like Hope's will, either. The infection has spread everywhere. There's nothing more we can do. Klaus can ease her pain, but—but she won't last much longer."

"This is such bullshit," Henrik snapped, jumping to his feet. His outburst made all of them jump. Everyone had been quiet up to that point, voices soft and subdued. Henrik didn't have the patience to be soft and subdued anymore. "There has to be something we can do, something we haven't tried! Someway to make the infection stop spreading. To slow it down, at least, to give us enough time to..." He trailed off. Something was nagging at the back of his head, something about Klaus and Mystic Falls. He couldn't quite grasp it, though, and Vincent was speaking before he could think about it further.