The Original: Book 3

Chapter 27

Hours later, Caroline was feeling normal again. As she went into the kitchen, her phone began to ring. It was Elena, asking her to find the sword. She left, coming back about an hour later with a laptop, Tyler, and the sword. "Well, if it isn't little orphan Lockwood," Nik commented, seeing Tyler. "Come to show how laughably impotent you are against me?"

"I'm just trying to help my friends find the cure. Found this in your attic." Tyler pulled the sword out of its cloth wrapping.

"And you think finding the sword brings you closer to the cure?"

"You tell me. I was playing around with the handle on the ride over. And I found this." Tyler unwrapped the leather around the hilt, revealing markings.

"And what do you think this is?"

"It's called a cryptex," Caroline chimed in, standing from her seat on the couch. Tyler gave her an odd look. "I've seen 'The Da Vinci Code'," she told him and I chuckled. "You turn the different sides to the different symbols to get the translation on the other side. And with the magic of the internet, Elena sent over these." Caroline picked up a stack of papers that had pictures of Jeremy's tattoos. "So now all we have to do is cryptex away. If you happened to want to help, we wouldn't stop you," she told Nik.

"Right, well. Might I suggest using the magic of the internet to purchase an Aramaic-to-English dictionary from your nearest retailer?"

"What's Aramaic?" Tyler asked slowly and I chuckled.

"It's a dead language. It hasn't been used since, like, biblical times," Caroline reported.

"It's also the language on the handle," I chimed in.

"Qetsiyah's native tongue, I'm guessing. You know, even if you had the best dictionary in the world, it could take days to translate, perhaps weeks," Nik insinuated.

"In bas so-teen-too ara-ma-eet," I said nonchalantly, smirking.

"What does that mean?" Caroline asked, her and Tyler looking over at me in confusion.

"'If only you spoke Aramaic.'" Twenty minutes later Tyler and Caroline had translated all of the symbols on Jeremy's tattoos.

"Okay, this is it. 'Passage inside...requires a young senator and a pretty flower.' Okay, none of this makes any sense!" She exclaimed, throwing her notecards down on the table.

"Bring it here," I commented, rolling my eyes and Caroline stood up, bringing the notecards over to the front door. She held them up where I could see them and I repeated the inscription in Aramaic before translating. "Requires a powerful witch and a hunter in full bloom."

"What are you doing?" Tyler asked, looking over at me from the couch.

"She doesn't need to tell you her reasons," Nik stated before I could speak. "Caroline, take the sword over to her." She went back over to the couch, putting the notecards down and grabbing the sword, which she brought back over.

I looked down at it, "Silas rests on the far side, the means of his destruction at hand."

"Turn the cryptex to the right," Nik commented, his eyes on the computer. Caroline turned it twice. "Stop."

"The top of the hilt reveals a key to a nautical map," I observed.

"Turn it to the left." Caroline turned it. "Now turn the other piece." She did as he said and my eyes widened.

"There's something else." I read the transcription in Aramaic and Caroline looked up at me in confusion.

"What does it mean?"

"It means there is only one dose," I revealed, looking over at Nik. Caroline quickly called Rebekah, letting her know the tattoo had been translated.

"We're emailing you pictures of the map and instructions right now."

"Got it. Thanks," Rebekah replied from the other end.

"Actually, it was me and Ellie," Nik spoke up.

"You guys helped?"

"You sound so surprised," I chuckled.

"Shouldn't I be? I mean, Nik, you don't want me to be human. You don't want any of us to be human. Why would you help us find the cure?" Nik's eyes flashed over to mine.

"Maybe I finally realized the longer I stand in the way of what you want, the longer you'll continue to hate me. Perhaps I want my sister to finally know happiness."

"Fool me one, shame on you; fool me a hundred times –."

"No more fooling. No more games. I hope you get to live, and die, as you wish."

"So do I."

"There is one more thing, Rebekah. There is only one dose of the cure. You need to find it fast and take it," Nik rushed out as Caroline and Tyler scrambled to end the call. I chuckled as they shared a worried look.

My character and her story are of my own imagination. They belong to me and nobody else. Please do not steal. Copyright 2017.