The Good Daughter

Eleven

The birds were chirping.

The sun shining.

Yet here I sat, in some kind of dark sitting room. Nik was outside, in the sun, speaking to a dark haired woman as they watched a young girl from a distance.

The other niece Freya referred to.

"Why does it feel like I'm in trouble? I did nothing."

"True." Elijah grasped a decanter, pouring himself a generous glass. "You are to stay with the family. As you always should have."

"My brothers are dead. By your hand. I haven't even been allowed to visit them."

Elijah shared a glance with Kol and Rebekah, something silent passing between them, something I wasn't privy to. "You will not be. They are a figure of your past. We are looking toward the future. We mean to leave this place, leave New Orleans and everything in it, and go abroad."

Far from Mystic Falls.

And of course I wouldn't be given any choice. "Will her life be as controlled as mine? Will she bear the loss of many to satisfy this family's
incessant need to be together? Will this girl be forced to partake in Always and Forever?"

There. I'd invoked it.

The vow.

One everyone here suffered from.

Elijah downed what he had in his glass and poured himself another. "Do you remember the trip we took to the North of Italy?"

We'd only done it every summer. "Yes." It was a compound larger than New Orleans. Plenty of land, its location was known only to Mikaelsons. We'd have our own places, including a small cottage I'd claimed as my play room and later my own solitude.

"That is where we are headed. On arrival, Freya will cast a spell over it and the small village. Hope will attend school there. We will be safe."

"Oh so she gets to go to school." Short as it was, I did enjoy my stint as a senior.

He nodded. "At the insistence of her mother."

The dark haired woman.

"I don't expect I'll be able to leave as I please."

"Not unless you'd like to find yourself in your coffin."

I stood. "That's the choice?! Go along with it or get daggered. I'm surprised at you, Elijah. Everyone in this room hates those damn boxes. Yet here you are threatening it."

Something had changed. His gaze was darker now, heavier. Hardly the soft eyed man that tutored me.

"I don't want to feel trapped anymore."

"This isn't a punishment." Rebekah sat on the arm of a chair. "We can finally have peace."

Kol hadn't said anything. Merely watched.

"Peace." I scoffed. "I just want five minutes at my brothers' graves. Yet I am denied what could give me an ounce of closure."

"You will not return to Mystic Falls, do you understand me?" Elijah ground out. "Not now, not ever."

"This is cruel. Even for you." Why couldn't he listen?! "I need some time." I pushed past them, heading toward the front door.

"Leave this property and you will be pursued." He warned.

Fucking hell.

I slammed the door as hard as I could without entirely shattering it, savoring how I actually felt a touch better after.

The dark haired woman glanced over at me, before her eyes returned to the little girl further in the yard, sitting at a table with Nik.

They were drawing together.

Sweet.

"Hard conversation?"

"Not in the mood to talk it out." It was rude, I knew. She had a gentle demeanor. "Thanks." I marched down the steps, garnering the attention of the little girl.

She watched as I veered to the left, entirely avoiding Nik, who'd no doubt been listening. 

Poor kid had no idea what kind of family she'd been born into.

I wasn't even surprised that Nik had been afforded the option to have children. It made sense. His wolf side wasn't activated until after he'd become a vampire. That part of him was still human.

Well, wolfy human.

His blood was already the magical cure to wolf bites and he wasn't turned into a vampire using the traditional method.

Magic was the key factor here, and nature had a funny sense of balance.

I toed the edge of what I knew to be Freya's cloaking, sorely tempted to ignore Elijah. They were all acting weird. Not around me, no I didn't get that treatment anymore.

Around Hope.

It was strange to be on the other side of it. To see the ugliness and my family truly was. As soon as I was far enough, I pulled out my phone, dialing a witch.

"Boss." He picked up on the first ring. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Oh please. Like you didn't miss me, Parker."

"You went radio silent and I hear you've been found despite my best efforts."

"More than that. I'm fucking trapped. Though I have a plan."