Red Queen ▻ The Originals [1]

21

   The following morning, Klaus had set up a dinner table in the courtyard to celebrate his return to leadership over New Orleans alongside Ophelia and their repossession of the Abbatoir compound from Marcel. The vampire army, including Marcel and his closest friends, were seated around the table, and Klaus and Hayley were seated at each end.  

 Ophelia sat to Klaus' right while Marcel sat to his left, The two of them continued to give each other weird glances as Klaus stood up. The original hybrid called for everyone's attention to give a speech by tapping his glass with his fork, "Let us begin with a toast to our shared gift: immortality. After a thousand years, one might expect life to be less keenly felt, for its beauties and its sorrows do diminish with time. But, as vampires, we feel more deeply than humans could possibly imagine." Klaus explained, gesturing toward a group of waiters and waitresses to join them at the table, one for each guest, "Insatiable need, exquisite pain..."

   The servants cut their wrists with knives, filling the cups with blood for the vampires, "Our victories, and our defeats."

Klaus raised his glass in a toast to the others, "To my city, my home again. May the blood never cease to flow..."

 After a moment, Marcel lifted his also, "And the party never end!"

   Ophelia frowned when she watched as Marcel looked over at Diego, who quickly raised his glass also, "To New Orleans."

   "To New Orleans!" Klaus, Ophelia and the rest of the vampires repeated after him.

 Ophelia lifted up her glass and drank it, causing Marcel to give her a weird look, clearly not used to her drinking human blood like he did. Spending almost a century with the same girl, Marcel learned almost everything needed to know about Ophelia, but now, while she was at Klaus' side instead of his, she was a totally different person.

 "I understand that some of you may have questions regarding the recent change in leadership, and I invited you here tonight to assure you that you are not defeated. No, my intentions moving forward are to celebrate what we have. What Marcel and Ophelia, in fact, took and built for this true community of vampires."

  "What about her?" Deigo asked curiously as he points to Hayley, who sat at the far end of the table, "The Wolf."

"Had you'd let me finish, Diego, you would know that there is, of course, one further matter I would like to address." Klaus told him as he walked over to the other end of the table where Hayley sat, "As many of you know, the girl is carrying my child. Consequently, I trust you will all pay her the appropriate respect. However, I understand that some of you are concerned by this vicious rumor that I intend to use the blood of our child to create hybrids. I assure you I do not."

 "Father of the year," Hayley smirked sarcastically as she locked eyes with Ophelia, who smiled at her comment.

  Klaus noticed that no one really believed his words and walked back to his original seat, "It appears I will have to earn your trust. Very well. We'll eliminate the root of your anxiety. You see, how I can I sire any hybrids if there are no more werewolves alive in the Bayou to turn?"

    Ophelia looked up at him shocked, "What? Klaus, no! You can't!" She shouted in protest, standing up from his seat.

  Klaus ignored Ophelia's pleas, "So-- eat, drink, and be merry. And, tomorrow, I suggest you have yourselves a little wolf hunt. Go ahead, have fun. Kill them all!"

____________

Marcel walked into his room to see Ophelia sitting on their formerly shared bed. She sat there in silence, a drawing pad in her lap and a pencil in her left hand, "What are you doing in here?" Marcel asked with a frown in her face, "Thought you didn't want this room."