Elijah Mikaelson & The Dragon's Quest

Chapter 16

All four Mikaelson siblings grimaced as the feedback over their earbuds screeched in their ears. Elijah pulled out his smart phone and dialed Angelica but there was no answer. Niklaus was already on his phone with Kol telling him that he and Freya would meet them back at the safe house, that something was wrong. Elijah and Kol arrived first to a house that no longer existed. Sirens were heard approaching in the distance. Elijah gasped at the scene as 300-year-old memories of the day he lost Angelica flashed through his mind. Kol grabbed Elijah's arm, sensing Elijah's distress and realizing quickly the scene Elijah was envisioning. Niklaus arrived moments later with Freya in tow.

Niklaus quickly sensed Elijah's state, and explained, "They had to make a hasty departure, Elijah, but no doubt they are safe. This is Angelica's dragon fire, look at how fast it burned." Elijah paused, staring at the fire then turning his gaze toward his siblings, his reason clearing his mind of emotion, stating, "Secondary safe house, they would go there." The siblings then sped away toward the pre-planned fallback location.

While they were en route, Elijah's smart phone rang and the Caller ID showed it was Charlie. Elijah and his siblings stopped while Elijah answered. "Stay clear of the secondary safe house, acknowledge," Charlie said succinctly. Elijah asked, "Why, where is Angelica?" Charlie told him she was fine, she in the cab driving the Grumman, and he would bring them up to speed. Charlie then asked if Freya was with them, Elijah said she was then put his phone on speaker. Charlie told all of them briefly about the attack on the safe house, the witches who brought down the protection spell, and asked how witches would be able to find them.

Freya opined that a locator spell was possible if the witches had a personal object from one of them. They could have a perimeter spell around Salem to alert them to supernatural beings entering the town but added that would require a tremendous amount of energy to maintain, or, she paused before offering the third possible explanation: One or more of them were marked by this Coven's magic. Freya advised she would need to gather supplies to cast a spell to determine what it was. The siblings found an abandoned house for Freya to use then Kol and Niklaus left to retrieve the items Freya needed.

Elijah was agitated because he had not been able to speak to Angelica yet. It was the protocol they established in the event they had to abandon the safe house: Radio silence until the secondary safe house was deemed secure and not subject to GPS or some other tracking, man-made or supernatural. Charlie's one phone call was the only call allowed and he would contact them once he was certain they were secure. Elijah was not pleased but he gained greater appreciation of the depth of detail that went into Charlie and Angelica's planning efforts.

Charlie and Angelica eventually arrived at the secondary safe house and Angelica remained with their magically manacled prisoner while Charlie conducted his scans, his sweeps and quickly set up the new house. The vehicle was secreted out of sight and they secured themselves and their prisoner inside the residence. The manacles not only suppressed the witch's magic but also would cloak the witch from being found by other witches, or at least they hoped it still would in light of the breach they had just experienced. Charlie maintained constant vigilance on the perimeter cameras and Angelica decided to get started on interrogating their prisoner. She first tried compulsion and that did not work. She paused for a moment then bit into the witch's neck, causing a muffled scream to emanate from the prisoner. "Vervain," Angelica said as she swallowed the familiar bitterness. They would have to wait longer until it dissipated from her system before trying again as compulsion would be the most reliable form of interrogation, although she was not above physical torture to obtain information. Angelica barely knew Davina but that did not matter, Davina was family.

Angelica asked Charlie for the pentacles and he took the necklaces from his pocket and placed them on the desk. Angelica looked at the pentacles and at the omega symbol in the middle. All three necklaces were the same. Angelica asked Charlie to pull up the video feeds from the garage to see if this symbol was found there. Charlie tapped on his tablet and before long he had two photos for her, one from the cloaked wall from the abandoned garage and one from the tunnels below where the Witch's Trap caught the three Mikaelson brothers in their endless nightmares. This is the symbol of the Salem coven and this would make it easier to find them.

Meanwhile, Kol and Niklaus returned to Freya and Elijah in the vehicles they had left behind. Freya was hard at work on his spells. It did not take long for her to realize her error. "I should have purified the three of you after the witch's trap. It left a mark on each of you, a homing beacon that the witches used to locate you. The talismans I made were to protect you from direct use of magic but the mark left by the magic was too subtle." she said, as she prepared the purification spell that would remove the coven's mark from the Mikaelson men.

As she readied her spell, Charlie called Elijah to tell him the safe house was ready and asked their progress. Elijah explained about the purification spell and Charlie told him to call him once Freya was certain she had eliminated the traces of the coven's magic so he would know they were headed to the safe house. The last thing Charlie told him was to ensure they all turned off their smart phones once they were headed to the new safe house. Elijah acknowledged and the two hung up.

Freya burned the sage and spoke her incantations, purifying each of her brothers one by one. When she had finished, Kol asked her whether she or Angelica would be marked and she said she had checked herself and she was clear, but she would have to check Angelica once they were at the new safe house. After completing the purification ritual, she performed a secondary spell and confirmed that a locator spell was not used to find them. It was now time to rejoin the others at the safe house.

Once they arrived, Freya performed her spells again and confirmed that both Angelica and Charlie were clean of the coven's magic. She took Charlie and Angelica's talisman necklaces to reinforce the spell she placed on them. She checked the manacles' magic, ensured their witch prisoner was cloaked and her magic suppressed. She placed another protection spell over the safe house modifying it to adjust to what she had learned from her earlier missteps. As the siblings discussed how best to interrogate the prisoner, Elijah took Angelica by the arm and took her aside privately. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and Angelica could hear his heart pounding. "I should never have changed the teams, this is my fault," he said, still holding her to him, tears forming in his eyes. He pulled out his handkerchief from his jacket's breast pocket and started to wipe the grime from her face, an exercise in futility because the explosion and fight with the witches had left her clothing in tatters, her hair was a matted mess, and nothing but a hot shower was going to get the leftover signs of battle from her skin.

"No, you were right to change the teams, Elijah, had Freya been at the house instead of me, she may very well be dead right now or a prisoner of this coven. Those were powerful witches and they took out Charlie almost immediately, he is too young a vampire to take on five witches. Even with my lineage they were quite a challenge. They did not seem to know about me so that gave me an edge."

Elijah wanted to tell her about how he felt when he arrived at the burnt out safe house but he did not want to burden her further with his nightmares. Instead, he kissed her, passionately, and hugged her again. He did not want to release her, he wanted to take his wife and pick up their son and go home. He had been here before and he feared it would end in tragedy, a cycle of death and destruction that swirled around his family with each new enemy they faced. But he was devoted to his family, his entire family, and Kol needed their help, and he would not abandon his brother.