Viktor stood in the middle of the empty street, watching the last remnants of the storm consume the clouds. Stefan stood a few feet behind him, his eyes locked onto the bodies in front of them.
"They weren't doing this on their own," said Viktor's voice, calm and steady. "Someone was giving them power and the incentive to do what they did. A broker. Human, according to the spirits. Walks among the city, remaining unseen."
"And now she's still out there," said Stefan darkly.
"We clean this up and we find her," said Viktor simply as they turned away from the scene. They didn't speak of it again.
---o0O0o---
At the Abattoir the family waited. Klaus stood by the fireplace talking with Hayley, while Elijah, Malia and the others stood in silent tension in the background. Viktor gave them the brief summary as he stood at the head of the room; the breach in their wards, the witches who had stood against them and had been taken down piece by piece, the obvious signs that this wasn't the work of anyone within their inner circle.
When he'd finished speaking Klaus only nodded. "We hunt them down quietly then. No more scenes in the streets until we know who we're dealing with."
Malia studied the tense set of her father's features as he turned from the fireplace. Whatever anger had flamed in his chest when he'd heard the news had been doused, leaving something colder and sharper in it's wake. He'd made his decision. It was time to move. No one questioned him as he gave orders to secure the perimeter and keep an eye on the remaining covens, to dig through the deep archives and pull up any information on long-lived humans who had stayed in New Orleans when they should have grown old and left long ago. He disappeared upstairs after a few minutes, leaving them to their work. He had no idea what Freya and Kol were doing down in the sealed room below the house.
---o0O0o---
The stale scent of smoke and herbs hung heavily in the air. Candles burned low and Damon and Katherine lay pale and unmoving on the cold stone table, their bodies wrapped in the same white sheets. Kol wiped blood from his wrist absently as he watched Freya.
"Last chance to turn back," he said softly.
"We've passed that point," said Freya and turned the last circle of runes around their bodies. Her hands shook slightly as she traced the air over their faces. "I can still feel the tether, Kol. If we don't act on this now it will snap."
She sliced open her palm, letting the blood fall in a single drop in the center of the runes. Kol did the same, pushing his magic through the binding magic with careful precision. The runes flared to life in a circle of red, then deeper purple.
Freya began to chant, the words flowing from her lips in a cadence that sent shivers up Kol's spine. It was an old tongue, one even he had only ever heard whispered by the elders before they'd been silenced. It was something stolen from Mikaelsson blood, locked away and buried in places only the oldest parts of the family knew. Kol joined her on the second verse, his voice rougher, deeper as he fed more power into the language, until the very air seemed to turn to frost around the edges of the room.
Damon's fingers twitched first, then Katherine's. Their bodies jerked ungracefully against the sheets as the spell fought against them, the white oak poison still clinging to their bones. Freya's nose bled profusely as she fed more and more of her own magic into the runes, Kol's eyes turning completely black at the edges as he pushed with all his might. The candles blew out and re-lit themselves at the same moment.
"Almost," said Freya, her voice tight and straining. "Don't let go."
They fed more power into the magic, the purple light growing brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding. A wet sound echoed throughout the room, like lungs being unclenched.
Damon's back bowed and his eyes snapped open, unfocused and wild. Katherine choked a moment later, her hands pushing against her ribs in an odd sort of panic. It took a few seconds for recognition to dawn on either of them.
"What the hell--" began Damon, pushing himself off the table to lean sideways with a harsh cough.
Katherine sat up more slowly, one hand pressed to her chest as if she were making sure it was still attached. Her eyes widened as they landed on Freya and Kol, on the blood and the magic and the runes. Understanding came to her before her boyfriend's, as it usually did.
"You got us out," she said simply, her voice rough. "That's a good start."
"That's a good start," agreed Freya as she slouched against the nearest chair, wiping blood from her face. "It nearly didn't happen. We've pushed as far as we could before they started recovering on their own. Another day and we wouldn't have been able to reach you."
"We'll try not to die on you for hundred of years then," said Damon, leaning heavily against the wall as he caught his breath. "This was a rather pricey undertaking."
Kol shot them a strange look, his usual sarcasm apparently in short supply for the current moment. He looked down at his hands before meeting Katherine's gaze. "Yeah. Tell me about it."
A/N
Sorry for the late update, school works and health issues, I will start the Patreon from next week after my final exam for the semester.