chapter forty eight

you're still here

・❥・

    JORDANNA GRUMBLED AS the sound of her ringtone reverberated throughout the bedroom. Klaus groaned in irritation, moving to swat the device off of the bedside table before the Jones harshly swatted his hand away, shooting him an annoyed glare.

    "What?" The vampire snapped into the phone, once answered. She didn't bother to check the contact name before doing so, so imagine her surprise when she heard the gruff voice of her best friend.

    Stefan, not seeming to be in the mood, didn't care for greeting's either. "Wanna tell me why I had someone from the Strix, which I don't even know what that is, try and kill me on my run this morning?"

    Jordanna sat up against the headboard in alarm, her abrupt action caused Klaus to be elbowed in the nose. "What?" The Jones turned to man beside her with a sheepish expression on her face and mouthed sorry upon seeing the glare he was giving her.

    "Mhm." Stefan mumbled. "Feel like telling me what the Hell that's about? Because I have a feeling you know exactly what I'm talking about."

    Jordanna paused in place as his words suddenly engraved in her brain. "Wait! You're not dead? The Strix came after you and you're not dead?"

    Stefan rolled his eyes. "Well, I had a little help. I was lucky Bonnie was there, otherwise I might've been dead. Now, what the Hell are you involved in? Is this some kind of gang or something? Am I supposed to know who they are?"

    "Ha, funny story actually ... basically-"

    But before she could even begin to explain, another phone call came through. The Jones pulled her phone from her ear, this time checking the contact name, only to find it was Naomi.

    "Hold on, Stef."

    "What? Jordanna — wait-"

    But before he could finish his sentence, she ended the phone on him.

    "Hello?" Jordanna grumbled in greeting. It was nine in the morning and she was tired, Sebastian kept her up all night with his crying, Klaus kept her up all night because — well ... you know why he kept her up all night.

    "Cami's dead."

Jordanna paused and inhaled deeply, rubbing a hand across her forehead in exasperation.

    What the Hell has that got to do with me?

・❥・

    By the time Naomi and Cami had made it over to the Abattoir, the Jones had figured it all out. Aurora had sent some of her brother's lackeys after Stefan, clearly having done her research on his and Jordanna's relationship, and ensured a backup plan if all else failed.

    Camille.

    She knew both Klaus and Jordanna were friends with Naomi, but she couldn't get to her. She couldn't give her quite the same quiet death she could Camille. Cami, on the other hand, she could compel, she found her after Lucien had taken her — she was already drained of vervain, thanks to the Castle vampire, and was easy access. Naomi cared deeply for Cami and Klaus and Jordanna cared for Naomi. It was a fickle situation.

    The Jones and the two Mikaelson brothers walked into the bedroom warily, finding Cami sitting on the edge of Rebekah's old bed, frame wrapped in a blanket whilst her body was covered in crimson. Naomi was knelt before her, face twitching with distress as she turned to the three upon their arrival.

    Jordanna took a cautious step forward, lips pursed softly. "Let me take a wild guess and say that Aurora did this."

    Cami nodded weakly, lifting her head to meet Jordanna's gaze. "She did this to me." Her voice cracked upon her words, a broken sob erupted from her lips. "I died. I'm dead." 

    Jordanna grimaced at the sound of her cries, turning her head to focus her gaze on the wall. Don't laugh. Don't laugh.

    Naomi's hand fell on top of Cami's knee as she looked up at her. "But you won't stay dead, Cami. I promise you, I'll kill her for what she did to you."

    But all of a sudden, Cami doubled over in pain. "Ah! Oh, what's happening to me?"

    Klaus lent against the doorframe, bored eyes finding Camille's as he stated the obvious. "You're transitioning. You need to feed on blood soon, or you will die ... This time, for good."

    "Plus, you only have, like, what? Twenty four hours or something. Probably less than that, actually ... you should really get a move on if you don't wanna, you know ... die." She lowered her voice at the last word, furthering her point, but she only received an annoyed glare from Naomi.

    It was only a little while later, ten minutes or so, and Cami had gone to use the shower. Leaving a furious Naomi, Jordanna and Klaus in the study.

    Elijah returned soon after, removing his coat as he made his way over to Naomi who was stood next to Jordanna by the bar. "How is she?" The Mikaelson asked.

    "How do you think, Elijah?" Naomi told him bitterly, not sparing him a glance as she took a sip of her drink. "She'll feel better when she feeds." The Tate vampire nodded to herself, in attempt to convince not only herself but the others around her. "In the meantime," Naomi continued, swirling the contents of her glass around before she turned to the rest. "Aurora needs to be killed, now."

    Jordanna nodded in agreement, pointing a finger in Naomi's direction, "Agreed. She sent people after Stefan, Elijah. Stefan."

    Elijah exhaled deeply, a calm look on his face. "Yes, and you shall get your retribution, after the Serratura has been recovered."

    "I don't give a damn about the Serratura!" Naomi yelled, slamming her glass down onto the table.

    "Naomi," Elijah began, cautiously nearing her. "Once we have the Serratura and the De Martel's are contained, you can do as you wish, right now, my main focus is maintaining my family's safety."

    A distasteful scoff left Naomi's lips, the brunette shook her head and turned, storming out of the room to check on Cami. Jordanna pursed her lips, watching her walk away. The Jones turned back to Elijah, "I think you pissed her off."

    "Of course he did," Klaus huffed a laugh, moving to lean against the bar besides Jordanna.

    Elijah rubbed a hand across his face. "Freya's pendant is missing." He told them, eyes flickering between the two suspiciously at their close proximity.

    Klaus rolled his eyes, "And Finn's mystical essence along with it. So let the imbecile stay lost. Our business today is to finish off the De Martel's!"

    "Now, brother, think. Think. Tristan needs the most powerful witch in the city to activate that weapon. A Regent."

    Klaus' jaw clenched in distaste. "Vincent." He sneered. Jordanna looked between the two cluelessly.

    "Wait. Hold on a second. Who the Hell is Vincent?" She asked, brows furrowed.

    Klaus rolled his eyes, turning to face the woman. "Vincent Griffith, sweetheart, the man who once was possessed by Finn, keep up."

    Jordanna, too, rolled her in eyes retaliation before she narrowed her gaze on the Mikaelson. "That was, like, a year ago. How the Hell am I supposed to remember that? I'm not good with names."

    "It wasn't that long ago," Klaus grumbled. "Ten months or so."

    "Basically a year," Jordanna retorted at a deadpan.

    "Hardly-"

    "Children," Elijah rose his hands, silencing the pair. "We have much more important things to be discussing, please." He then turned to his brother. "Niklaus, go assist Naomi, she may need you. Jordanna, you come with me."

    But before either party could argue, Elijah had already strode off, decision made.

     "Who the Hell put him in charge?" Klaus muttered bitterly before rolling his eyes as he placed a swift kiss on Jordanna's cheek, making his leave, as did she.

・❥・

    Vincent Griffith stood in the Lafayette Cemetery, glaring at one of Tristan's witches. Said witch was gripping onto Freya's talisman tightly.

    Vincent looked her up and down, not bothering to hide his distaste. "Hm. You're an Obi witch, right? Older sect, too, with all that show you got going on." He spoke, gesturing towards her attire; from the long strings of puca shells that hung around her neck and wrists to the black scarf wrapped around her head to accent her black and white hair.

    The Obi witch merely sneered at him in anger, "Do not speak to me."

    Vincent pulled a face, mockingly covering his mouth with his hands. Though he was not afraid, far from it, actually. "You're powerful witches. Proud people," he continued, failing to fulfil her wish. "And rightly so, from what I understand. You don't usually bow down to anybody."

    The witch stared at Vincent with a hard expression, watching as he slowly walked towards her. "Your ancestors must be turning in their graves right now-" He stopped himself just for a moment to mockingly run in spot. "-Watching you runnin' around here, doing a vampire's business."

    But the Obi witch only grew angrier the more he spoke, "I said do not talk."

    Vincent shrugged carelessly, "I heard you! I just have to know ... What does it feel like to be a backstabbing traitor?"

    The witch went to move so that she and Vincent were face-to-face, but one of the Strix guards stood up, pulling the witch away from him. "Stay on task." He demanded, shooting her a stern look.

    Though, Vincent took advantage of the current distraction, flicking his wrist an angel statue fell from the top of the closest tomb and onto the vampire's head, causing him to fall to the ground.

    The second guard went to rush at Vincent, only for the witch to break off a wrought-iron fence pike and shoot it towards him, with his mind, impaling the vampire in the chest.

    The Obi witch raised Freya's talisman in the air, prepared to use it, but Vincent beat her to it, he flicked his hand in front of her face and she fell to her knees, crying out in agony. The talisman fell from between her nimble fingers and to the ground. Blood poured from her eyes, nose and mouth.

    "This is for your ancestors!" He clicked his fingers in front of her face and the witch screamed at the top of her lungs. "May they judge you harshly."

    Vincent stood to his feet, only to find the vampire he impaled with the pike was back on his feet. He grabbed Vincent by the wrist, bending his arm before he raised the pike to stab him.

    But before the vampire even got chance, a whoosh sound erupted in the air and the vampire's head detached from his body, revealing a smiling Jordanna, holding a rather familiar baseball bat — and, of course, Elijah stood besides her.

    Vincent sighed in relief, falling back onto his elbows. Elijah glanced around the area, taking in the carnage that Vincent had wrought, whilst Jordanna offered the fellow witch her hand, Vincent cautiously placed his hand in hers and allowed her to pull him up, to which he was greeted with. "Hi. Jordanna." She gestured to herself. "Big fan."

    Vincent hesitantly nodded back in greeting just as Elijah passed him. "Vincent! We should chat." He announced, just as he moved to grab the pendant.

    "No!" Vincent called out, moving to grab it first, but he was too late. The Griffith sighed in disarray, moving to sit on the ground of the cemetery, he leant back against the wall of one of the tombs whilst Elijah incessantly began pacing.

    "Look. I don't know what to tell you, man. You want your big, bad Serratura, you're gonna have to go after Tristan because he took it with him after he forced me to activate it." Vincent told Elijah, not failing to hide his distaste for the man.

    His opinion on Jordanna varied. Whilst he hated vampires and their morals, Jordanna was also a witch. She was apart of the Jones bloodline. He had the tiniest ounce of respect for her, but not a lot seeing as he had heard many tales of Jordanna Jones.

    "So deactivate it." Elijah shrugged, stopping his pacing to face the man.

    "I couldn't even if I wanted to, and just for the record, I'm done with vampire demands for the day." Vincent scoffed. "Push me and see what happens."

    Jordanna glanced between the two in boredom before she shrugged and grabbed one of the bloodied pikes she pulled from the vampire's body and threw it at Vincent. What? She wanted to see what would happen, she was curious, sue her! But before it even got close to the man, Vincent rose his hand and it stopped in place before it flipped and soared towards Jordanna, the Jones retaliated by raising her own hand and stopping it mid-air.

    But as expected, Vincent didn't allow it to just end on such note. His eyes narrowed down onto the woman and she felt a searing pain rush through her veins. "Oh!" Jordanna's face scrunched up. "It tickles." She paused. "That really hurts, actually, good job."

    Vincent rolled his eyes and smiled falsely in her direction.

    Elijah smacked the metal pike from the air, allowing it to hit the floor with a clank. "That wasn't an invitation to piss him off, Jordanna."

    "What?" She shrugged, looking between the two before her gaze settled on Vincent. "I was just curious, God!"

    Elijah rolled his eyes at her behaviour and turned to Vincent, "My family's in jeopardy, you're responsible."

    Technically it was the Mikaelsons' fault for making so many enemies but Potato, Potahto.

    "That's on you, man! If Tristan didn't have the pendant, then he wouldn't have any leverage over me!"

    Elijah held the pendant up, inspecting it with a smug expression. Vincent sighed as he realized the Mikaelsons could now use it as leverage. Jordanna strode over to Elijah and snatched the necklace from his hand.

    "Well, now we have leverage over you so ... It's not looking good, Vinny."

・❥・

    Jordanna, Vincent and Elijah entered the courtyard, where they found a horrified Freya clutching her chest with one hand and a piece of parchment in the other. She didn't look up once at their arrival, her eyes merely focused on the small, cream-coloured box on the table.

    "What?" Jordanna asked with a frown as Elijah rushed over to his sister, sensing something was wrong ( though it was very fucking obvious something was wrong with her. )

    "Freya, what's happening?" Elijah asked in concern.

    A tearful Freya glanced up at her brother, "A messenger came. Some compelled tourist. He left this ... "

    She gestured to the box on the table, and Elijah gently lifted the corner of the lid whilst Vincent warily watched from besides Jordanna, but she moved closer to the Mikaelsons to get a better look at what they was staring at.

    A heart.

    Jordanna's gaze snapped up to Freya's. "Tell me it's not Hayley." She asked, but it came out more like a plead. She hadn't been able to get a hold of the Marshall-Kenner all day and she was freaked.

    Freya shook her head, a small stream of tears falling down her face. "Jackson." Elijah shut his eyes, sighing at the news. Freya held up a letter in her hand. "Courtesy of the Strix."

    Jordanna snatched the letter from her fingers and began to read the contents. "Dearest friends, please find enclosed the heart of Jackson. Hayley's will follow unless you meet me at Coltrane's Autoshop, 1268 Adderly in the ninth. Kind regards, Tristan. Bastard!"

    "So, unless we meet their demands, Hayley will be next." Elijah spoke, jaw clenched.

    "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Jordanna hastily muttered to herself as she paced across the courtyard. "This is not happening. This is not fucking happening!" She continued to talk to herself, her tone laced with distress.

Elijah made his way over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her rash movements. "We will bring Hayley home safely, Jordanna, we will win this."

"Will we?" She frowned, tilting her head at his words. "Because to me, Elijah, we're losing. Jackson's dead, Aurora got to Stefan and Cami, Tristan has Hayley ... What's next? They get to Nik, to Seb? Don't you see, Elijah? We've lost."

"No," Freya spoke up, voice dry, cracking as she spoke. "Not yet we haven't, we're Mikaelsons-"

"If you finish that sentence I will violently throw up, please don't start with the heartfelt speech."

・❥・

    Naomi dragged Cami into the study of the Abattoir, the blonde struggling against her.

    "Let go of me!" Cami yelled, trying to shrug Naomi off of her, but due to the vampire strength, she was no match.

    Naomi sighed, rubbing her free hand across her face. "I don't have time for this, Cami!"

    The Tate vampire let go of her and moved to walk away, Cami rushed to follow after her in anger, but she was thrown back by an invisible barrier.

    An annoyed look coaxed Cami's face. "Oh, seriously? Real mature, Naomi!"

    "JJ drew up a boundary spell." Naomi shrugged.

    "Naomi-"

    "I'm going to help save my friend now, okay? I can't do that if you're running around town and I don't know where you are! You don't wanna feed, fine, that's your choice, Cami, but this way I know where you are."

    "You have no right to do this!" Cami all but growled in retaliation, face painted with anger, but Naomi merely ignored her and left the room.

    "Probably not," Jordanna's voice spoke up as she walked into the study. "But that's not gonna stop her, Cami. She, for some weird reason, cares about you, a lot. Like she said, you don't wanna feed, that's your choice, no one's saying you don't have a choice but if I let this barrier down you'll run off. You wanna die, fine, die for all I fucking care, but don't go alone, before you know it she'll be back and you don't have to die all by your lone-some!" Jordanna grinned, she didn't really care much for this whole situation, and her words showed it. "Anyway, there's some blood just in case, you know, you change your mind. Tastes a bit weird at first but pretend it's wine and you'll be fine!"

・❥・

    "Why do I get the feeling you don't like me very much?" Jordanna asked Vincent as they stood in the middle of the road, awaiting the car which held Aurora.

    "Because I don't," Vincent told her bluntly, glancing over at her with raised eyebrows as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Not even two hours ago you tried to stab me."

    Jordanna rolled her eyes eccentrically and shrugged. "Because you basically told me to! I'm sorry for being curious, God."

    Vincent turned to her with raised eyebrows. "I didn't tell you to do that, I said-"

    "Shut up, the car's coming." Jordanna shushed him, hastily grabbing onto the man's hand, much to his dismay. Making matters worse for Vincent, she began swinging their hands. "Oh, you hate me so much," she gushed at the grimace on his face. "This is too fun."

    "Just do the Goddamn spell, Jordanna." The man grunted out. The SUV came speeding down the road, approaching them at a fast pace only for Jordanna and Vincent to begin chanting, their voices grew louder before they twisted the wrists of their free hands inwards, causing the SUV to violently flip, rolling down the road before it finally stopped in front of the pair.

    Vincent shrugged Jordanna's hand off of him and the raven-haired woman turned to him with a small eyeroll before she gestured to the crashed SUV. "You know, I killed my best friend's ex the same way, same road too."

    Vincent huffed, shaking his head as he watched one of the Strix guard's kick the door open. "Nice to know."

    Said guard groaned in pain as he pulled himself out of the vehicle. Once back on his feet, he staggered towards Jordanna and Vincent slowly, popping his broken bones back into place just as the driver of the car appeared behind him, him, too, venturing towards the pair.

    But before they could even lunge at them, Elijah appeared out of nowhere and staked the two in the back. Jordanna rolled her eyes as he buttoned up his coat, whilst Vincent looked mildly impressed.

    "Nice timing." The Griffith man nodded in thanks.

    "Do you have to be so dramatic? Jesus." Jordanna scoffed at Elijah's nonchalant face and strode past him, heading towards Klaus who dragged Aurora's body out of the car.

    "Oh, my love. I knew you'd find me." Aurora gushed, moving her hand up to stroke Klaus' cheek before Jordanna's hand latched around her wrist, stopping her. The Jones sent her a false smile.

    Jordanna tugged Aurora into her own arms, imitating Aurora's previous action as she moved her hand to rest on her cheek.

    "Oh, cara mia," Jordanna tutted, looking down at the redhead who weakly scowled up at her. "I almost feel bad for you. Almost."

    A frown pulled at Aurora's features before her neck twisted at an uncomfortably fast rate, Jordanna dropped her to the ground before she turned and peered out from behind the car, watching as Vincent and Elijah spoke. About what, she hadn't a fucking clue, but she didn't care enough to listen.

    Instead, she turned back to Klaus and placed a quick kiss on his lips. They still hadn't told anyone they were back together, if you'd go as far as to call it that. They weren't exactly hiding it, but they didn't see why it needed to be voiced.

    Klaus grabbed a hold of Jordanna's arm, stopping her before she sauntered back off to Elijah and Vincent. He pulled her into him and his brows furrowed. "We'll get her back." He told her, noticing her unvoiced worry.

    Jordanna shook her head, letting her nonchalant expression falter. "Will we, though?"

    Klaus merely nodded. "They've declared war, and it is war we shall give them ... and in time." He glanced down at Aurora's limp body with a knowing look. "You shall get revenge."

    "No," Jordanna told him with a stern look. "Not me, I ... Naomi needs to do it. I think she'd kill me if I killed Aurora before she got her hands on her."

    "Then Naomi shall avenge Camille if she wishes, so be it. But I promise you, we will get Hayley home in one piece."

    Jordanna scoffed. "You're going soft on me, Nik. You sound like you actually care about her. That's a first."

    Klaus dramatically rolled his eyes, "Yes, well, she seems to do that to people. It's rather annoying, if you ask me."

・❥・

    Jordanna, Klaus, Naomi and Elijah stood inside of the warehouse at Patrick's Dock when half a dozen Strix vampires made their way into the room, including Marcel, Aya and Tristan.

    A smug looked etched onto Tristan's face as he neared the three, stopping a few feet away from the trio. "Gentlemen, ladies. I wish I could say it was a pleasure."

    Not one of them bothered to reply, instead their attention flailed over to Marcel, who stood besides Tristan. Klaus gave him a knowing look. "Marcellus. Made your bed with the enemy, I see."

    A fake smile sported Marcel's face. "Membership has its privileges." He turned his attention to his old friend. "Nai." He nodded in greeting.

"Marcel." The brunette greeted blankly, looking away from him. She wasn't exactly in the best of moods due to Camille's transition.

    Jordanna shook her head at the two before a taunting smile pulled at her lips. "Did you like your Christmas present?"

    "Oh, I loved it." Marcel replied sarcastically. "Especially chapter ten. Don't-"

    Klaus rolled his eyes. "Let's get on with this, shall we?"

    Tristan nodded grimly and turned back to a tall, blonde vampire and nodded in her direction. The woman nodded back and gestured for some vampires behind her to come forward and so they did; only they held a bloodied and shackled Hayley in their arms. Her legs gave out beneath her once they released their hold on her.

    Jordanna clenched her jaw at the sight and swallowed roughly.

    "Hayley Marshall-Kenner, only slightly worse for wear. You'll have to forgive her if she seems a bit off. There's enough wolfsbane in her system to kill an entire pack," Tristan huffed in amusement as the words flowed from his mouth. "However, here she is, as requested. Now, where's my sister?"

    "She lives," Klaus sneered, lips curving up. "You can thank Elijah for that." Klaus took a step forward towards Tristan so that they were standing eye-to-eye. "I wanted to flay her and hang her skin as a flag."

    "I would've gone for serving you her head on a silver platter, covered it in mealworms while I force you to wear her skin as a jacket," Jordanna spoke up, smiling to herself as she glanced down at her nails. "So tight that you can barely breathe whilst I make you watch her die over and over again ... but skinning her and making her a flag seems more fun."

    Klaus watched as Tristan clenched his jaw, the De Martel went to move in her direction before Klaus took a step aside, covering the woman from his view. "Enough chit-chat. Let's conclude this tedious business, shall we?"

"My sister first," Tristan cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes down onto Naomi upon noticing her heated glare. "And, if you're tempted to argue, consider the numbers."

Jordanna rolled her lips into her mouth, her fingers twitched uncontrollably beside her. She wasn't allowed to kill the Strix; one wave of her arm, or even a small little glimpse at them and they'd be dead ... but no. She wasn't allowed to do anything that could jeopardize the mission.

Elijah's orders, of course, Naomi and Klaus were both up for it, Naomi's eyes may have brightened a little too much at the idea.

A smirk pulled at Klaus' lips as he took another step towards Tristan. He revelled in the nerves that practically seeped from the De Martel's body before he rolled his eyes and walked over to the rusty, green shipping container. He swiftly pulled it open with one yank, revealing Aurora. The redhead sat inside with a black hood over her face, wrists bound behind her back.

Tristan lifted a suspicious brow and turned to Aya. "If they try anything, attack."

Aya nodded in understanding, watching as Tristan vamp-sped over to the container and towards his sister. Swiftly, he pulled the hood off of her, her head weakly rolled on her shoulders. Tristan looked back at Aya, and in turn she flitted her gaze to the vampires standing guard over Hayley.

Jordanna stumbled in place as she sauntered forward, catching Hayley in her arms as the Strix vampires carelessly threw the Marshall-Kenner forward. A ragged breath left Hayley's lips, sweat dripped down her forehead, meshing with the crimson dotted along her face. Her chin rested on Jordanna's shoulder and the Jones' fingers laced in her brunette locks as she rested her cheek against her hair.

Turning her head, Jordanna watched as Aurora stirred, beginning to wake up. "Oh, brother, you came for me." She smiled weakly up at him.

A soft smile enveloped Tristan's face. "Always." He pulled her up on her feet and she immediately wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

Aurora sneakily reached into Tristan's pocket, pulling out the Serratura. The second it was in her grasp she hastily pulled away from his embrace. A wary look coaxed the older De Martel's features, he slowly reached out to take it from her.

"Rory? ... What are you doing?"

But before Tristan could react further, Aurora slammed the Serratura against the wall of the shipping container, the warehouse shook in its place as the device activated, though the medallion remained in place. Crazed eyes watched Tristan as he turned, trying to run out of the container, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier.

Tristan turned to his sister in horror. "No ... Aurora ... What have you done to us?"

A smug look coaxed Aurora's face as she walked towards her brother. "Not to us ... To you."

Tristan's face only fell deeper as he watched her walk past the barrier, joining the Mikaelsons, Jordanna, Naomi and Hayley.

As the redhead turned to face Tristan, a haze enveloped her, revealing that it was Camille the whole time. Tristan's features painted into one of fury.

"What is this?" He demanded.

"You know what they say," Cami shrugged. "Payback's a bitch."

"How is this possible?"

A smug look fell upon Klaus' features. "The Serratura creates an impenetrable boundary. Nothing living or dead can pass through."

"And, thanks to your lunatic sister, I'm neither."

Tristan's eyes widened in alarm, as though the situation had only just sunk in. "No!" The De Martel banged against the wall, repeating the action in anger.

Klaus moved over to Jordanna, head moving down to her ear as he murmured. "Stay close to me, okay?"

Naomi side eyed them as she took a protective stand in front of Cami.

Tristan's eyes glazed over the Strix vampires, who, honestly, don't seem to know what they're doing. "What are you waiting for? Take them! Now!"

Just as the Strix moved to obey the command, Elijah turned and stepped forward to address them himself, his body covering a weak Hayley, who was still in Jordanna's arms, from their view.

"Before you rush headlong toward almost certain death ... as your sire, I would like you to employ just a little bit of common sense."

A scoff fell from Aya's lips at his words. "We are ancient vampires, Elijah — each of us almost as strong as you."

The Mikaelson shrugged. "You might almost be successful in subduing us, but at what price? Most of you will die in the process, and for what? To avenge a fool marching you headlong toward your very extinction in the name of a witch's prophecy? You do realise he engineered absolutely all of this purely to satisfy some petty grievance against my family?"

Elijah turned, walking towards the shipment container, smiling fakely at Tristan as he leant against the metal door. "Tristan doesn't care for any of you."

"Stop listening to him!"

Elijah ignored the De Martel's yelling, merely rolling his eyes as he continued. "The only danger here is the choice that you must make. You see, I am not your enemy. It's true, I delivered you into this existence. I can just as easily pluck you out of it. The choice is yours to make."

A torn look overpowered Aya's face, but she continued to glare at Elijah as though she was juggling between the idea of fighting them or leaving. Marcel sent her a look and walked over to her. "It's done. The moment has passed. Be smart, Aya. Smarter than Tristan. Don't waste any more of our guys."

The woman shot him a glare, displeased that he was ordering her around, but after a moment, she turned to the rest of the Strix. "Stand down."

"You will not abandon me!" Tristan yelled, furious, crazed eyes watching Aya dangerously.

The woman merely ignored his glare and walked towards him, giving him a regretful look. "It's a shame it has to end like this."

"Aya, this isn't over!"

Oh, but it is, a smirk pulled at Jordanna's lips.

Aya placed her right hand over her heart, though her words were cold. "May the ghosts of our fallen keep you company."

Tristan watched as the Strix began to leave the warehouse, Aya and Marcel included.

"Aya! Aya!"

・❥・

After the Strix had left, Camille and Naomi began arguing, and of course, Jordanna being Jordanna dragged Klaus off with her to listen. He deemed it ridiculous as they hid behind one of the crates, but he didn't much complain as things grew heated.

He liked the drama almost as much as she did.

But now, they were to deal with Tristan.

"So, this is to be my end?" Tristan asked, seeming resigned to his fate.

A condescending smile pulled at Elijah's lips. Jordanna leant against the door of the container, smirking menacingly as she wiggled her fingers at him as he met her eye, Klaus stood behind her, back-to-back, as he, too, smirked at the vampire.

"No, no. This is the very beginning!" Elijah clasped his hands together. "You are going to the bottom of the ocean, where you will drown in the darkness again and again and again over the course of centuries."

Tell Damon I said hi while you're down there, Jordanna thought to herself.

"This will be your splendidly horrific perpetual end." Elijah said gleefully.

Tristan's hands curled, he bit at the skin on the inside of his cheek, "What have you done with my sister?"

"Nothing," Naomi spoke, a smile curling at her lips. "Yet."

Just as Elijah and Klaus went to shut the door, Hayley stopped them. "Wait." She spoke, taking a step forward she looked Tristan dead in the eye. "You took a very good man from this world. He will be with me forever, but you? You will be forgotten. And as you rot in the ocean ... remember my face." She reached out to grab the shipping container door and began to close it. "Because it's gonna be the last one you ever see."

And the door shut with a loud slam.

・❥・

Night had fallen quickly, the only light in the Bayou being the flames of the torches the Crescent wolves held. Hayley sat in the porch of her old shack, writing Jackson's name into the Labonair Bible left to her by Eve.

Jordanna swallowed harshly as she made her way over to the brunette, her hand brushed her shoulder gently. "It's time, Hales."

Hayley took a deep breath and nodded, shutting the Bible before she came to a stand, heading down to the lake.

Elijah took a torch from one of the Crescent werewolves and held it as he allowed Hayley to say her goodbyes. The Marshall-Kenner looked down at her husband's body, he was wrapped in white sheets and resting on a wooden boat. Her hands trembled as she reached out and covered his face with the sheet, tears ran down her cheeks.

She then grabbed a bottle of whiskey and took a large swig of it before pouring the remains on his body. She turned, taking the torch from Elijah, he watched her silently as she set his body ablaze.

She turned her head once she felt a presence next to her and found Jordanna stood besides her, the Jones grabbed the hybrid's shaky hand in her own and watched as Jackson's body began floating down the lake.

"Til death do us part."

AUTHOR'S NOTE !

jordanna and vincent's love-hate relationship is gonna be my favourite thing to write.

not much of klaus and jordanna for obvious reasons; they have to be secretive duh and there was wayyy to much going on for them to be all lovey dovey.

tbf there wasn't much of jordanna, this was a very very veryyyy boring chapter to write and I couldn't think of much more she could do in it, other than piss off vincent but I couldn't skip it 😐 so here we are

next ones more exciting ... I think??