AFTERMATH [ 2 ] | LEGACIES

S E V E N

My phone buzzed, and I looked down at my lap.

Mon Amour is calling.

Roman, I thought with a thankful sigh of relief. I had taken off so abruptly, stopping by his dorm to give him a kiss and say I would be back. He knew what I was doing on my trips back home. I declined the call, and texted him 'Caught up, will call you tonight when things settle. I love you.'

He texted back a quick, 'Might sleep by 10, so if you're still busy by then, just call. I'll leave my ringer on so I don't miss you. I love you, too.'

I looked at the woman sitting next to me. Bonnie looked confused and a little uneasy. I did, too. Bonnie turned her glance to me, both of us sharing a reassuring smile. In the back of us was someone who claimed to be Lorelle, my very much anciently dead mother. The same mother who was supposed to have died giving birth to me, but is here, looking very much like a vampire.

She was wedged between the Salvatore couple. Upon hearing about the commotion at Bonnie's, they were both there. They dropped Stefanie at the Salvatore School to come along with us for the trip. Even though their daughter was a human, she knew all about the supernatural world since it was apart of her family history. Since the school was built in her uncle's memory, she was welcome to stay in a dorm room there at any time, even be a student there if she wanted. She attended the local high school, Mystic Falls High, like her mother.

I didn't like the thought of Damon and Elena being there. The thought of them being in a potentially dangerous situation when they were both human was not ideal, not when Stefanie was still a young girl. The thought of her growing up without parents hurt to think of, but they said that if Bonnie and I were going to see this though, so would they.

The original Mystic Falls gang were probably some of the most selfless people I knew.

Bonnie put shackles of "Lorelle" that prohibited any magic that she could use. Even though she already showed to us she was a vampire, we had to make sure. We also injected her with vervain, a portion large enough to make her drowsy, but not enough to knock her out.

She kept murmuring about how she longed for this moment, to see me, to meet me, to hold me in her arms. That I was ripped away too soon, Dahlia being the most wretched person she had ever encountered. I gripped the steering wheel hard, my knuckles turning white as I tried to drown out her words, unsure what to believe and how to feel.

So, we drove to New Orleans. When we got to the Mikaelson compound, I grabbed Lorelle's arms, pulling her along with me. I texted Aunt Bex as a heads up, who was living in New York with Marcel, so she made her way back to New Orleans to be the only living person nearby who would be able to identify if this woman was actually my mother or not. Uncle Kol was still off traveling and living in exotic places with Davina, but he got a text as well.

Aunt Bex, Aunt Freya, Keelin, and Marcel were all waiting by the entrance for us. They straightened their postures as we approached, and I walked in the front. Aunt Bex's facial expression when she saw the woman told me everything I needed to know, but I still wanted to hear the words.

"Lorelle..." she mumbled, almost a whisper as her face paled.

I saw tears start to form in her eyes as she stared at the woman who claimed she was my mother, her wide eyes showing the disbelief. She swallowed, and said, "I'm not sure one hundred percent... if this woman sure as hell looks like your mother, love."

"Because I am," Lorelle said drowsily. She sent Rebekah a half smile, and said, "Nice seeing you after all this time, Bekah."

"If you really are Lorelle, what is something only she and I would know?" Rebekah asked, taking a few steps towards us.

"When you were eleven you'd sneak out at night to go hang out with a boy from the village. He was a werewolf, and you knew, but it didn't frighten you. He was your friend, so you made sure you were there, even on nights when he turned on the full moon," the woman replied, and Rebekah looked as if she dropped her guard.

"Lorie," she said, and rushed forward, grabbing the woman from my arms to pull her into her own. "It is so good to see you. Kol would be delighted when I give him the message."

Lorelle, still drowsy, turned her head to the side in confusion. "I'm sorry, why just Kol? Where's Finn and Niklaus? Henrick?"

She looked around, and realized an absence of someone for the first time, and her face fell.

"Where's Eli?" she asked, her voice wavering. She looked at me, her eyes wide with fear and sadness as tears formed. "Honey, where is your father?"