The Young and Gifted

89. dead end

MG paced around the office doors, biting his nail anxiously. After talking with Kaleb he knew it had to be done. Grace glanced up from the desk, narrowing her eyes. "Are you alright, Milton?"

He cleared his throat and rubbed his sweaty palms against his jeans. "Uh—yeah, actually is Ric in right now?"

She rustled through the paper and answered, "He's available for the next half hour. You can go in."

The vampire nodded and opened the office doors to find Ric laying back, staring off into nothing. He shook out of it and greeted the student. "Hey MG, how can I help you?"

"I've been wanting to talk about this for a while and the more I didn't, the more things have gotten out of hand," he announced and sat in the chair. "You need to do something about Jade."

Ric leaned forward. "How so?"

"Remember at the beginning of the year? Although the decision was entirely up to me, she's the one who convinced me to flip my switch. And then after I got better, she tried to do it again and now she's broken the legs of a witch by pushing him down the stairs. He's too scared to come clean because he knows she'll find him," he explained. "I'll admit that people can playfully bully others but I don't think physically bullying someone is should be ignored."

"I'll speak to her but don't worry, her expulsion is already in the works," Ric said.

"What do you mean?"

"We think that she lied. Her humanity switch has been off this whole time."

*

Hope had left Landon at his dorm room a couple minutes ago and was making her way towards the library. She froze when she spotted Lizzie flipping through a stack of books and her brows furrowed instantly. "What are you doing?"

Lizzie didn't even look up as she scoffed. She slammed a book shut with frustration and moved to flip through the others. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm reading."

"I know but why?" There was one thing she knew about the witch and that was Lizzie didn't have time to read.

Lizzie groaned and sank into the chair, massaging her forehead. "I'm trying to find a way to avoid this stupid Merge tradition before it bites me in the ass. It may be 6 years from now but time has a way to catch up on you."

Hope approached the desks of papers and her eyes briefly snagged at a couple of titles before she glanced back at Lizzie. "Didn't Caroline say that you guys might not have to do since there is no coven?"

"So? We can't just bank everything on that. What if we still have to go through it? What if the Gemini magic considers Josie and Kaura the last members of the coven? It's little but the chances aren't impossible," Lizzie pointed out.

Hope nodded with understanding and reached for one of the books. "I can help—"

"This is a family matter," Lizzie snapped and snatched the book out of Hope's hold.

The tribrid chuckled with disbelief and shook her head. "Fine then, I'll leave you to your endless search."

Before Hope could leave, Lizzie shuffled around and said, "While I'm dealing with my family dilemma, you should probably look into yours."

Hope turned to that, eyebrows knitted. "What does that mean?" She realized that Lizzie was balancing a thick textbook in her hand.

Lizzie held it out and the name popped out. Mikaelson. "It's not a grimoire because your family was too heavy on witches as they were vampires."

Hope accepted the book and flipped through the pages. "I already know all of this, my Aunt Freya told me everything I needed to know about them," she said. Indeed, she recognized information like how Klaus activated his hybrid curse and how Rebekah used to date Marcel Gerard, the former king of New Orleans.

Lizzie shrugged and returned back to the table. "Ok then, Miss Know It All. Go back to hooking up with Landon."

Hope chuckled. She didn't mention that she and Landon hadn't gotten to that point yet "You're acting like you and Raf don't—" she stopped short and Lizzie turned to her with question. "Wait a minute." She frowned as her eyes zeroed in on a page. "It says that my mother was part of a pack growing up."

"I thought you knew everything," Lizzie said snidely.

"Aunt Freya said that my mom never knew her parents or her family," Hope muttered, examining the book thoroughly. "Apparently they got murdered. How does this book know something I didn't?"

"Dorian loves his research. He probably went on a scavenger hunt," Lizzie said as she picked up another book to flip through.

Hope seated herself too, reading through the book as new information sprung at her. Her mother was part of a pack, the Labonair's. They resided at the far edge of the Bayou and remained isolated from the city. That was until the Alpha wanted an alliance between the Cresents and bethrothed his daughter to the Cresent son. Hayley Marshall and Jackson Kenner. Her mother was the Labonair queen. The deal never fell through because Marcel got pissed off that the two packs didn't announce their joining at the Council meeting. His tyrant rule got him paranoid about the alliance and sent his vampires to stop it. Casualties were made, the queen survived only to be sent away from home and the Cresents were punished with the curse of staying in wolf form. Hope swallowed as she realized that even without the broken alliance, Hayley and Jackson still got together. Hope eyes scanned down and realized that a text revealed that all Labonair members had a birthmark somewhere on their bodies. And at the image of the drawing, she instantly knew where it was on her.

Hours seeped into itself and Hope's eyes were getting tired of trying to read through the heaps of information. She wondered how Dorian got so many details. Wondered if he went to New Orleans to obtain such a reliable source. Lizzie was still awake though, her hair in a frantic mess. Raf had dropped in at some point to kiss her and bring her coffee and shortly left.

"How long ago did Dorian find this information?" Hope asked, sitting up on her chair.

Lizzie groaned, trying to rack through her mind. "I think when I was fifteen. I remember he took a long break for a business trip. He was gone for a semester."

"That was like 3-4 years ago."

"Why?"

"Because according to this...there were survivors." That was how Dorian had his sources.

The Labonair pack was still somewhere in the New Orleans Bayou.

*

Hope called Freya once she returned to her room and paced around, waiting for the phone to pick up. "Hey, Hope," she greeted.

"Hi, Aunt Freya," Hope smiled and sunk in her bed. She explained her whole entire revelation that she discovered at the library. She felt excited to extend the knowledge of her family.

"Hope," Freya warned in a low voice. "Dorian found that information three years ago. I haven't heard of the Labonair pack until now and I know everything. They might have moved—"

"Or you just don't know where to look. It's been years—maybe even centuries since the assassination and they've still been around three years ago. They know how to hide, they know how to isolate themselves. They have to be there." I know it.

Freya sighed and Hope could tell she was rubbing her temples. "Fine. I'll get Jackson and his pack to go look. If that doesn't work, I'll track them down with your blood or that hairbrush you left here."

"Thank you," Hope said genuinely and said goodbye to her aunt before getting ready for bed.

She really hoped it wasn't a dead end. Literally.

~

"Vampires, werewolves, witches and everything in between."

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