Cheers to Forever, Love.

New Orleans

Chapter Nine.

In Boston, Emma had worked as a Bail Bonds Person for almost a year.
The luck 2011 had bestowed upon her seemed to have been a blessing, which didn't stop on her birthday. She'd had a case on a guy named Adam and everything had gone surprisingly smoothly.
But when she got home and lit the candle on her cupcake, she couldn't quite decide what to wish for.
But before she could choose, her phone rang.
"Hey Freya." She greeted, a wide smile on her face.
"Hi, kid. Happy birthday." The Heretic said.
"Aww thank you." Emma sang.
"So what did you get up to today?"
"Shut a case, ya know – same old." The blonde shrugged. "Where in the world are you and Lance these days?"
Freya chuckled as she sat down on her couch with a glass of Scotch.
"We're currently in the middle of nowhere in Norway. We thought me being closer to home would be good for me, not to mention that there's ancient magic here, so it could help me with what I've been searching for all these years."
"Do you feel like you're getting closer to an answer?" Emma wondered.
"Possibly. But anyway, tell me about your case." She mumbled.
"Well, the guy was evading his taxes, so I friended him on Facebook, he asked me out and I nabbed him on our date."
Freya burst out laughing. "Bringing it home in time for your twenty-eighth birthday wish. I like your style, kid."
"Yeah, I was actually just about to make said wish. Wanna stay on the line?" Emma asked.
"Of course. Don't let me hear that wish though." The Heretic chuckled.
"Okay." Emma replied, a bright smile on her face as she picked up the cupcake. With one blow, the candle was extinguished. "There."
Just that second, someone knocked on her apartment door.
"Who on Earth is knocking at this hour?" Freya asked.
"I dunno. I'll call you back, okay?" Emma told her. "I love you."
She hung up and walked over to the door.
Upon opening it, she found a small boy with milk chocolate coloured hair and a rucksack stood in the door well.
"Uh... Can I help you?" She asked, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"Are you Emma Swan?" The boy said in an enthusiastic tone.
"Yeah, who are you?" Emma shifted her weight onto her left leg.
"My name's Henry. I'm your son." He gave a very short but bright smile and slipped under the arm Emma was holding out to support herself.

Freya sipped her Scotch as Lance came in from his search.
The wind and snow came in heavy as he entered their cabin gripping three very old looking books.
Freya placed her phone and Scotch down on the coffee table in front of her and took the books from him.
"What are these?" She asked.
"Grimoires I found in the basement of that library we saw a few days ago." Lance replied as the pair moved towards the small dining table. "They looked older than any of the others we've found. One of them could have something."
"Well, there's only one way to find out." Freya sighed, opening he first book on the pile. "Looks like this one's on me. Unless you know how to read old Futhark runes."
Lance shook his head. "I'll play bartender and chef this evening, then."
Freya chuckled as she began skimming through the pages.

Almost two hours later and half way through the second Grimoire, Lance had made pasta in a chicken and white wine sauce with T-bone steak and had glasses refilled several times over. But just as they were finishing up, Freya found something promising.
"By the Gods... I think I've found something." She gasped.
"What is it?" Lance asked.
"It's not a spell, but whoever the original owner of this Grimoire was, I think they knew my sire's mother. There's a story here about her and her husband, among others, travelling to the Americas. It says she was working on a spell to open doors to other dimensions." Freya read. "In which case, I think I know exactly where I need to go."
"Where?" Lance raised an eyebrow.
"New Orleans."

Lance and Freya made their way to the home of the Heretic's sire.
"Niklaus? Are you here?" Freya called out as they entered the courtyard of the large compound situated in the middle of the French Quarter.
"He's not, but I am." His older brother, Elijah, appeared out of nowhere and leant his shoulder on one of the columns with his arms folded over his chest, which accentuated his toned muscles through his expensive, tailored suit.
"Elijah." Freya sighed, smiling as she jogged into his arms. He instantly buried his face into her neck, taking in the scent he'd longed for, for over a century and a half. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too, my dear." He beamed down at her.
"I'd love to catch up, but I need to ask a favour of you." Freya frowned.
"What is it, my love?" Elijah's honey smooth upper-class-American voice felt like velvet to her ears.
"I need to look at your mother's Grimoires. I believe she may have created a spell that could help me."
Elijah's expression instantly became concerned.
"What ails you enough to need that kind of power?" He asked.
"I'm fine. I just... It's a long story. I need to get to another dimension and learned that your mother was working on a kind of portal spell when she and your father came to the US." Freya huffed.
Elijah frowned, taking a moment to think.
"This sounds like extremely powerful magic, Freya. If you could find another way, I strongly advise you look for another option." He sighed.
"I've exhausted all other options. I've been on this search for almost fifteen years, travelled the world twice and this is the best result I've had. Please Elijah, I need your help." Freya begged, taking his hand.
Elijah glanced down at their entwined fingers as he released another, heavier sigh.
"You're in love." He concluded.
"Is it that obvious?"
Elijah chuckled. "I know what Freya in love looks like, my dear. I was the one it was directed to for a long while, remember?"
Freya gave a small smile.
"So you know how I'm feeling right now. I need to get back to him."
Elijah then looked up to Lance, who stood there patiently.
"You're Freya's first-sired, aren't you?"
Freya looked between them, feeling a little annoyed that Elijah would just change the subject so dismissively.
"I am, indeed. Lance De Rosa, sir." He smiled, shaking the hand Elijah had free from Freya's grasp.
"Ah yes, Lancelot. I remember you." Elijah smiled before turning back to the Heretic. "You both had better follow me."

Up in the study, the three immortals were greeted with an entire wall of ancient books.
"All of these are your mother's?" Freya gasped.
"Most of them. Others are ones we've picked up along the centuries and these ones," Elijah walked over to a particular row, gesturing to ten of the Grimoires. "Are yours."
Freya beamed at the sight of them.
"I can't believe you've kept them all this time."
"Of course. Your magic is rare, my dear. But they are yours, so you are free to take them, if you want." Elijah smiled, bowing his head a little. "But these ones are the ones I think you'll find most useful for your current predicament."
He walked over to the opposite end of the wall and began to remove books from the shelf, placing them on the large mahogany table situated in the centre of the room.
"I'll tell you what, you guys read through those and I'll go on a food run, since I can already tell these are going to be in runic." Lance huffed.
"There's a bakery a few blocks away that does the most incredible beignets. Their coffee isn't the best, but we have that here." Elijah suggested.
"Awesome. I'll be back soon." Lance nodded before making his exit.

As Freya and Elijah looked through his mother's Grimoires, Freya's patience began to wear thin.
"We've almost finished going through these bloody books and we've found nothing." She huffed, closing her fourth book just as Lance walked in.
"Beignets!" He smiled brightly. The two ancient Vampires looked up at him with bored and fed up expressions. "Tough crowd. Still no luck?"
"Not so much as a teleportation spell. Gimme one of those beignets." Freya sighed, reaching for the white paper bag in his hand.
Lance passed her one, then offered the bag to Elijah, who politely declined.
A few hours and a dozen books later, Elijah had struck gold.
"Freya, I think I've found it!" He pointed to a page, enthusiastically.
"You're joking." Freya gasped, running over to him. Tucking an annoying portion of jet black hair behind her ear, she examined the spell. "This looks like it!"
Elijah beamed, twisting his body round in his chair to give Freya a tight celebratory hug.
"What do you need?" He asked as they separated.
"The spell isn't complete, but I think I have an idea on how to fix it." Freya nodded to herself. "She appears to be mixing spells from all over the place. There's an Empowerment spell, a common locator spell, even the spell of Revelations and the Tempest spell is in here, but she seemed to have something missing. I think, if we can fuse her ancient magic and something more modern, we can recreate the power of the magic beans in the realm I was in. So, I'm going to need snake's blood, a Sage smudge stick, some semi-precious stones – I'm thinking Quartz, Lapis Lazuli and Obsidian, a whole bunch of candles, a pool of water and – here's where it gets crazy – the bones of a powerful Witch."
Lance gave her a wide-eyed look, but Elijah was used to all of this, so he just sat there thinking it over.
"Well, everything seems rather easy except for that last one." He thought aloud.
"I still know a few witches in this town, I'm sure I could find one who has a relative who isn't using their bones anymore. There's that or it's either a trip to a particular town in Virginia or a trip back to Norway." Freya sighed, moving back to her seat.
She slumped down, sighing heavily.
"What can I do?" Lance asked.
Freya thought for a moment, going over the ingredients in her mind.
"I need you to get the semi-precious stones and the candles. Elijah, if you could take care of the snake blood for me, that'd be amazing. I'll sort the witch bones." She nodded.
"It looks like we each have our tasks. We meet back here in an hour." Elijah rose from his seat, straightening out his suit jacket after doing up its buttons.