Ardent | Elijah Mikaelson

Chapter 21

Everyone was annoyed.

Hayley was bored out of her mind, confined to the house all day. Evangeliya and Rebekah were both frustrated with Klaus for having thrown a hissy fit and handed Elijah over to Marcel, because now they had to clean up his mess.

And Klaus was annoyed that no one was siding with him and validating his ridiculous idea.

"So?" asked Hayley the following day. "What's the plan?"

"Well, that depends what plan you mean, love," said Klaus with teasing sweetness, "my plan for global domination, Rebekah's plan to find love in a cruel, cruel world, or Evangeliya's plan to sleep with another one of my big brothers?"

Evangeliya glared at him. "You think you're hilarious, don't you?"

"I am quite funny."

"I mean the plan to rescue Elijah, obviously!" said Hayley.

"That does somewhat tie into Evangeliya's plan."

Hayley rolled her eyes. "Is there a plan to get him back from your mortal enemy, or what?"

"Well, firstly," replied Klaus, "Marcel is not my mortal enemy– he's my friend. Albeit one who is unaware that I'm trying to sabotage his hold over the supernatural community of the French Quarter, but a friend nonetheless. And secondly, I daggered Elijah in order to gain Marcel's trust. If I had known he would place my brother in the hands of a particularly nasty teenage witch, I certainly would have weighed my options a bit differently. And thirdly–" he gestured to Rebekah, "Sister, please."

"And thirdly," Rebekah piped up, "the plan, as you have demanded, is for Niklaus to simply ask Marcel for Elijah back."

Evangeliya raised a brow. "And that will work... why?"

"Have faith," said Klaus, making a face at her, as if to get under her skin. "That's only the Plan A, love. There's always a Plan B."

"And that is... what, exactly? Bribing him with chocolates and flowers if asking him doesn't work?"

Klaus smirked. "War."

Apparently, Plan A had failed. While Rebekah was out and about obtaining Sophie Deveraux's help to find out more about the situation with the witches, Klaus had messaged Evangeliya to let her know the plan had failed and that he needed intel on every single one of Marcel's vampires, to see what could be used to get them an in.

She had her loyal vampires search the internet and find as much information as possible while she went on foot, tailing a few and monitoring how they communicated. She was hoping one could lead her to where Davina was being kept, but it seemed none of them were actually privy to her whereabouts or even to the fact Marcel had her hidden somewhere. Not one of them mentioned her name, just harassed the witches to no end and waltzed around the city like they owned it.

Within an hour, she and Rebekah arrived to one shared important discovery.

"You go first," she said to Rebekah when they initiated a three-way call with Klaus.

"Very well," she replied. "I learned one of the witches is in love with someone in Marcel's inner circle. Guess who it is?"

Evangeliya could almost hear Klaus smirking. "Right-hand-man type, favors silly caps?"

"Two points for you," said Rebekah. "Thierry is fraternizing with the enemy."

"I learned the same thing," said Evangeliya. "However, there is an added detail. Marcel knows. All the vampires do, he isn't sneaking around. Which means he has Marcel's trust, currently."