Unleashed ↠ Elijah Mikaelson

08

"Thank you for your compromise" Cassandra caught sight of Elijah and walked towards him "I stand by each of my rules, no exceptions, I cannot invite you in"

She stood with a giant leather-bound book in her arms, it was torn at the edges and the pages looked destroyed. It looked like any other grimoire.

Both of them stood just on the outskirts of the town centre. Elijah didn't want to take her back to her family, he couldn't be dealing with their drama, but she also refused to let him inside.

"Were there any casualties from last night?" She asked Elijah as they snuck into town, as soon as her foot crossed the border and inside of it, the witch lifted her blood red hood over her head to stop anyone from recognising her. They creeped into the nearest building, it was a small pub, perfect if they needed privacy.

They sat down in the near corner and Cassandra placed the book on the table, her hands then clutched the hood to keep it up, yet she lowered it slightly so Elijah could see her face.

"I haven't heard of any bodies found nearby" he replied to her "Rebekah and Niklaus will be doing a headcount any time this morning. Any news on your side?"

"I haven't heard much; Eloise usually visits me to tell me, but it seems as if she's gone slightly crazy, she's acting differently" Cassandra muttered "I know that someone has stepped up to the position of leader, nothing else"

Cassandra's eyes diverted back to the book, she let go of her hood and began to carefully flick through the pages to reach the one she really needed. It didn't take long, she had studied the drawings and the words late last night just to be sure.

"What we are looking at here is a piece of classic New Orleans witch folklore" she began as if it was just natural to her now

Elijah looked at the old drawings in the book, he tried to read the writing but it was written in a completely different language to what he could read. "What language is this?" He asked

"It is Latin" she informed "don't worry if you can't read it, I can"

Cassandra began, her slim index finger pointed on the first drawing "it apparently started in 1240, in this area before the French colonised the town and named it New Orleans, the inhabitants called it Aldhill forest" Cassandra laid out what every witch was taught, before New Orleans the town was something different "there was a very powerful coven leader, he was called Count Thomas Gale"

She slid her finger down where the drawing showed many people kneel at his feet, or what Elijah would guess to be Thomas in the drawing. "Once, the man became too greedy with his power, he wanted more..." Cassandra's eyes scanned the writing, instantly translating the words into her own language "he took a few trustworthy witches and ordered them all to work together and create a spell that would take the power from something else and transfer it to himself"

The atmosphere turned dark as the story went on "they recorded each and every spell they created, the ones that went wrong, they're all here in this book" she flicked forward and showed Elijah a glimpse of the discarded spells "but eventually, they gave up, they tried one more spell but nothing happened"

But it wasn't the end of the story, even the town idiot would be able to tell that there was more to come. "The town suffered for months as there witches went missing, vampires that lived on the outskirts went missing, wolves went missing" she listed "until one night, a young girl stumbled upon the count's feeding ground, where he was in the midst of feeding among her older sister"

The story sent shivers down Elijah's spine as he awaited to ask the question of what the creature really is.

"Somewhere along the making of the spell, something went wrong. I am unsure of what, whether it be a tainted source of magic, backlash from the ancestors, karma for his greed... But somehow his power remained the same but he had an uncontrollable hunger for the blood of the supernatural" Cassandra knew what Elijah was about to ask, so she saved his breath and explained "though he had no power of a vampire, no speed, no enhanced senses, no fangs, he had to use his blunt teeth to tear the victim's skin"

"How could anyone live like that?" Elijah asked "how could he defeat vampires, during those times vampires were classed as the stronger species"

"Maybe he had the element of surprise?" She suggested "he only hunted at nights so nobody would really see him"

"You said their spells were included in this book?" Elijah asked, hoping that the spell they used would be in there, so maybe they could analyse it.

"Yes, but I've only procured this book in the past few days, someone has ripped the page out" she turned the book to the page where the spell should have been, leaving a ragged edge of the page just in between the previous and next page, but looking closer, it seemed as if multiple pages were torn out before the chapter on spells, maybe the story went unfinished. "According to some, the spell had been destroyed because others have attempted the spell but tried to improve it, they had no luck, and it released more into the city. Maybe it's history repeating itself"

"Can I borrow this book?" Elijah asked, closing it and looking at how the embossed name on the front had been severely scratched out, so much so the leather at the front had been worn away, showing the black hardcover beneath. The name was unreadable; but he didn't think anything of it. "To show my family"

Cassandra snatched the book back "I'm sorry but I have fought many fights to have this book in my possession, your family can suffice with the story from your memory"

"And there is no way on how to catch one, how to defeat one?"

"Nothing" she replied "only that"

"Well we will have to find out, because I think we have exactly one of these monsters in our city" Elijah realised

"It's going to be tough" Cassandra looked down and then back up. They will all have to pull together now, it might only be one creature, maybe it's three, but they will be hard as hell to defeat.

They didn't even know where to start.