On My Own | Hale - TVD/TO/TW [4]

49 | Save the Child

Lexi and Elijah, both bloodied and pale, stagger through the streets of New Orleans, calling out Hayley's name. "I'll kill them," Lexi mutters to herself. "I'll kill them all, damn the consequences."

"We have to find her," Elijah says, pausing before Saint Anne's Church. "They couldn't have gotten far."

Slowly, Lexi turns her head towards the entrance. "I smell blood," she whispers, clamping her hand over the werewolf bite. "and death."

Without a second more of hesitation, Elijah bursts through the doors, calling out Hayley's name. Lexi stays rooted to the spot with tears slipping down her cheeks. She does not need to step inside to know what awaits her.

"No, no, no, no," Elijah pleads from the church.

Forcing a step, a sob escapes Lexi as she leans against the threshold of the building, staggering into the closest pew. Klaus sits against the sacristy with Hayley's corpse in his hands, a pool of blood around them and a large cut across Hayley's throat. Elijah kneels before them with his hand on Hayley.

"She's gone," Klaus says with a sniffle.

Lexi manages to stay upright as she watches her brothers break down into tears. Her eyes flicker between blue and red, her claws slipping from her fingertips. She shakes her head, unable to tear her gaze away from Hayley's body.

"You've been bitten," Klaus says, offering his blood. "here."

Elijah gratefully drinks before he takes Hayley from Klaus' grasp to place her atop the sacristy. Klaus simply sits with his hands resting on his knees.

"I was supposed to protect her," Lexi whispers so softly that Elijah does not hear her. She clenches her jaw and asks, "How—"

"I was bested," Klaus whispers.

"You were bested," Elijah mutters. "You were bested?!" He shouts, spreading his arms wide. "My invisible brother?"

"Elijah, enough!" Lexi yells. Both brothers turn to her. "Hayley is gone." She chokes on the words. "What of the baby?"

Slowly, Klaus walks over to her, his wrist still bleeding from Elijah. "They took her," he says. "but there is still time. We can save her." He offers her his wrist; she takes it.

"This baby was born part werewolf," Lexi says as color floods her face. She wipes away some blood from her chin as she turns to the exit of the church. "Which means she was born into our pack. Let's hope the bond is strong enough to follow."

Lexi leads them as far as the witch cemetery before she frowns. "She's here," she says as they wind through the lanes of tombs. "I know she's here, but I do not know where. I cannot sense her anymore."

"The tombs are empty," Elijah says frantically. "The grounds are deserted. She's not here!"

"The is the only place they can be!" Lexi exclaims with her eyes flashing red. "We have to keep searching.

"They are not here, Alexis! We are wasting time!"

"The Harvest was here," Klaus says. "The Reaping was here. They're about to perform a ritual which will feed their ancestors for centuries—ancestors who are buried here!"

Klaus bumps into Lexi in his attempt to continue on. She narrows her eyes at a statue atop a tomb. "We've passed by this three times all whilst going in the same direction," she says. "They must have fabricated some illusion."

With a grimace, Klaus climbs on top of one of the tombs. "That's one word for it," he says as he stares out at miles and miles of tombs for as far as the eye can see.