Hellfire | Hayley Marshall

Chapter 1

September 7, 2011

Hayley was terrified.

This was all too much. Her drunken one-night-stand landed her pregnant with Klaus Mikaelson's child. Her journey to New Orleans brought no satisfactory answers about her family. Vampires and witches were everywhere, and she seemed to be the only werewolf in the vicinity.

Now, she was in some luxurious mansion with Klaus and Rebekah, after the hybrid had daggered Elijah for opposing him and shipped him straight to Marcel Gerard.

That morning, she'd heard a conversation that left her wondering how much worse things were about to get.

"Marcel possesses a weapon bigger and more powerful than an Original, and you handed our brother to him!" Rebekah shrieked downstairs. "How many times will Elijah forgive you? How long until his hope for your redemption finally dies?"

"I did what I had to do!" Klaus yelled back at her. "Marcel took our home!"

"And our home is worthless without family," Rebekah spat. "I am finding Elijah— whatever it takes. Are you going to help me?"

A pause, which had Hayley worried. "Whatever it takes," Klaus replied at last.

"Good," said Rebekah, "because I think it's time we tell Eisa." Hayley expected that Klaus had not liked hearing this, because Rebekah added, "And don't make that face, Nik, because there is no one I trust more than her, to help me find our brother."

The whole day, Hayley had been wondering who this Eisa person was. Klaus didn't seem to want to be around when this mystery being arrived, because he'd made excuses about seeing Marcel, which Rebekah had shot down, insistent that he ought to be there to greet Eisa. They had some argument about how Eisa would not be pleased if Klaus was acting so negligent. Klaus insisted that Eisa would rather die than help him.

"So, who is this person you two have been talking about all day?" asked Hayley cautiously, not sure if she was supposed to know about Eisa, or not.

"My backup," said Rebekah simply, picking at her nails. "Nik is demented, and I need reinforcements."

"That's not answering my question."

The Original rolled her eyes. "Eisa is my sister."

Hayley blanched a bit. Was she really expected to live with four Originals? "You have a sister. Okay. Um, what's she like?"

Rebekah wasn't sure where to begin, or what to say, because there was so much she could touch on. But she decided on a point in history, and got going.

"If you hate Klaus," started Rebekah, "then you're not going to like Eisa at all. They call her 'The Trickster.' 'The Temptress.' 'The Original You Really Don't Want to Piss Off.' She's infiltrated secret societies, created them, driven men to end their own lives, sired armies of vampires to do her bidding and bring about bloodshed, all for fun. I don't know if my father knew that her name meant 'burning fire' and 'offspring of Loki' when he dubbed her that, but as you can already see... It's accurate.

"She's the third child my mother, Esther, bore. Our eldest sibling, Freya, died of plague. My parents brought Finn and Eisa to the New World, where Elijah was born, which brought about the rest of us. My sister used to be my favorite person in the whole world. Eisa was our second mother. She fed us, bathed us, clothed us, kept us safe when my father tormented us. She worked spells with my mother, then taught them to my brother Kol, and I, as we were the only ones who ever tried to understand our witch side. She gave up quite a bit, to keep us happy. Many men in our village wished to marry her, and she refused, because she wanted to help us thrive despite having parents who were frankly, terrible."