28 | CEMENT VEINS

Elijah has just awakened on the ground, and is breathing heavily, still weakened from the spell Celeste cast on him. The spell was removed from Khalia and the girl sped to her brother. The Mikaelson male looked at his supposed to be dead ex-lover. "You poisoned me with a kiss. At least you haven't lost your sense of irony."

"I have a better discription than ironic." Khalia sneered at the witch, holding her brother up by his arms as he slowly became steady on his feet again. She threw the witch a heated glare over her shoulder. "Starts with basket and it ends with case."

"We may have time for more. But first, I'm going to cure you of your greatest flaw- this absurd devotion to your lunatic family." Celeste told the to siblings, ignoring the heated disgusting look that the Demon Mikaelson gave her.

"Takes a lunatic to know a lunatic, you bonkers bitch." Khalia snarled at the witch, tremors of anger running through her body, wanting nothing more that to speed forward and to rip out her heart. And she would do exactly that, as soon as her brother was back to himself.

Elijah starts talking before his sister could open her mouth again. "Your anger is with me. Now, if you have come here seeking revenge-"

Celeste cuts him off, "Oh, I'll have my revenge. Starting with Klaus. He is gonna know pain and torment like he's never felt before. Unless you choose to save him, of course. But then that leaves Rebekah, your tragic sister. She's about to find herself in quite the predicament. You could save her. But then that leaves Hayley in jeopardy..."

Elijah started panicking, his brother and the mother of Niklaus' child. "No. No, no."

"Not her." The words was low, hair raising, heart stopping, blood curling and inhumane all in one. A shiver crawled up Celeste's back. The next moment, Khalia launched herself at the witch and wrapped her hands around Celeste's throat. Before she could snap her neck, the witch threw the vampire of her and them placed the same immobilization spell on her as earlier.

Celeste rubbed her neck, smirking smugly at the enraged Mikaelson girl. "Poor girl. She has no idea how dangerous it is to be involved with the Mikaelson family. Oh well. With your bodies weakened by my spell - poison for Elijah and cement like veins for Khalia, you won't be able to save them all. You'll recover with just enough time to choose one. Who will it be? I can't wait to find out."

Khalia snarled at the witch willing her body to move but it was useless. She was frozen and powerless to kill Celeste or save Hayley. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest, feeling as through someone was ripping it out over and over again as images of a lifeless Hayley filled her head.

And then everything went black.

***

Elijah awakens once again on the ground and saw his sister waking up next to him as well. His phone starts buzzing, and when he sees that it's Hayley, he answers it. He's still breathing heavily as he tries to recover from the spell and Khalia struggles to move her limbs, they were all feeling heavy and like Celeste said - it felt like cement was in her veins, making it difficult to move.

Elijah answers worriedly, "Hayley." His sister's head snaps up at the name and he can see how she leans over and uses her supernatural hearing to listen into the conversation.

"Elijah, Khalia isn't picking up her phone and something's going on with the witches." The werewolf told the vampire, her tone panicked and an automatic smile lifted on the vampire's lips when she heard the concern the pregnant girl felt for her.

To hell with not being on speaking terms, Hayley is in danger and Khalia needs to get to the werewolf - her soul won't rest otherwise. "I'm fine, sweetheart, we just ran into a blast from the past."

Relief flowed through Hayley when she heard the voice of her favourite Mikaelson,nbut it quickly vanished when Elijah started talking again. "Listen to me. You were right. Celeste is back. Niklaus, Rebekah- you're all in danger."

"What's going on?" A male voice asked through the phone and Khalia frowned heavily, the action sending sparks of pain to her brain from the spell - who the fuck is that?

"It's a trap. I didn't make a deal with any witch." Hayley answered to the guy on the other side and Khalia froze at her words, realisation setting in - Celeste.

"What?" The same male voice asked,

"Hayley, get out of that house right now, we'll be there as quickly as we can." Khalia told the werewolf through the phone, voice sounding panicked even to her own ears.

"Hayley, you have to find Rebekah. You stay with her until we get there." Unknown to the two vampires, a fire starts around the perimeter of the plantation house. When Hayley, Sierra and Jackson go to rush out the door, they find they can't because a boundary spell has been set over the threshold.

"It's a spell. They're trapping us inside." Hayley told them, her heart sinking to the bottom of her feet, her free hand going down to rest on her baby bump.

"Fuck!" Khalia swore before she sped of to the plantation as fast as she could. Every nerve in her body enflamed, it burned as she pushed her limbs to run faster, the cement like veins screaming in protest as she continued to ran. Her eyes was stinging and stomach churned, this felt all to familiar to a year ago when she ran to the Gilbert house to save her twin brother.

She just hoped and even prayed that she was in time this time around.

***

"Sweetheart?" Jackson asked, tone judging and amused all at once, with a raised eyebrow as the three werwolves waited for the two Original vampire's to arrive. Sierra snorted and smacked Jackson on his chest.

"Don't ask." Hayley mumbled, cheeks burning as she thought to the nickname that the dark haired female Mikaelson gave her. Right now was not the time to discuss that. Not when she was ninety-nine percent sure that Khalia doesn't mean anything by it. But it's that one percent chance that it does mean something, that keeps Hayley's hope alive.

Hope for something more, for something intimate and loving and suddenly the picture of Khalia dressed in her bikini from a few months ago came back into Hayley's mind. She imagined touching, kissing and sucking on the milky skin before she shook her head and looked back at the two werewolves infront of her, her cheeks burning worse than ever before.

"Are you two dating?" Sierra asked, much less judging that her boyfriend did. A flash of longing passed in Hayley's eyes.

The pregnant girl gave the blonde girl a sad smile. "I wish, but no."

The fire continues growing in size, burning its way up the walls toward the ceiling. Suddenly, the window shatters. It's Khalia - and Hayley lights up like a candle, because she came for me - who has thrown herself through the wall from the outside to save Hayley. She gave the werewolf a relieved smile before picking her up bridal style and vamp-speeds her outside to safety.

"Where's Rebekah?" Elijah asked the werwolf the second that his sister appeared back

"I don't know. She went off with one of them." The pregnant girl looks at the siblings urgently and pleadingly. "My friends is still in there.

Khalia sighed before looking at her brother. "Go after Rebekah, I'll get her friends." Elijah smiled gratefully before speeding into the forest. Khalia gave Hayley a slightly smile before she rushes back inside, muscles screaming in protest, veins burning with fire. Inside, Jackson and Sierra falls to the floor, coughing as the fire rages on. The Demon Mikaelson makes it inside and helps him up.

"Up you go." She orders but Jackson shakes his head.

"No, h-help Sierra first." He pointed to a girl that was laying on the floor not far from where the male was. She picks up the girl in a fireman's lift before speeding outside and depositing him on the ground next to Hayley. She sped back inside and wrapped the man's arm around her neck and she placed her free arm around his waist before she sped out of the burning house.

She let go of him and rested her hands on her knees, chest heaving up and down and her lungs felt like it was on fire. The more air she let in, the more it burned her. Hayley rushed to her side when she saw that the vampire was in pain.

"Khalia, what's wrong?" Her voice was panicked as she placed her hands on the Mikaelson's shoulders.

"I'm fine, sweetheart. That witch bitch out a spell on me that turned my veins into cement and everytime I move, it feels like my insides are on fire." The immortal girl explained as best she could. She stood straight, wincing as she did so, only to look into Hayley's horror filled eyes.

"But you saved me, you went through the window and oh God, why did you do that? You must be in so much pain." Hayley gasped, the horror in her chest tugged violently at her heart while her eyes blurred with tears.

"Hayley," Khalia reached forward and took ahold of the werewolf's hand before tugging her closer, eyes serious and for a second, Hayley was startled. She's never seen the female Mikaelson look so serious. "I could take any torture in the world, I could live with cement veins for all eternity, but I could not live with the pain of losing you. So do not feel guilty about this, not for one second."

Hayley swallowed thickly, heart feeling like it was about to jump out of her chest. How can Khalia say things like this to her and expect them to keep their distance from each other? She smiled shyly, "Can I give you a hug?"

Khalia's eyes widened, stricken for a second. The 'no' was on the tip of her tongue, but her whole body was aching and she has never been a selfless person. Without warning, she pulled the werewolf closer and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Hayley bloated stomach put a barrier between them and the werewolf turned on her side.

"Um, Hayley, we need to go." A male voice said and Khalia turned her gaze to him, breaking the hug with Hayley. Khalia tensed and the pregnant werwolf have her a reassuring smile.

Hayley waved at them, giving the two a smile and watched after them as they walked away. Jackson had seen the Mikaelson vampire before. She was back at the plantation house, always around Hayley, watching her and protecting her. Just like she did tonight. Jackson thought, as he took Sierra's hand, that Hayley was really clueless when it came to the female vampire. The way Khalia looked at her tonight, the obvious relief and fear of losing her, told the male werewolf that Khalia Mikaelson cares a lot more about Hayley than the vampire likes to admit and a lot more than the pregnant girl thinks.

Khalia picked the werewolf up bridal style and Hayley locked her arms around the vampire's neck. For a long second, they just looked at each other. Hayley's eyes flickered down to Khalia's lips and the Mikaelson girl pushed down the bout of desire to kiss Hayley and sped back to the Compound.

Arriving home, Khalia sees that Marcel has gathered his vampire army in the courtyard to organize a search party for Klaus and Rebekah. Hayley goes upstairs, wanting to change out of the smoke stinking clothes. "We've looked everywhere for him. Tore apart the Cauldron, the City of the Dead. Wherever they got him, he ain't in the French Quarter."

Before the Demon Mikaelson could utter a word, Elijah returns to the compound and furiously storms toward Marcel. "MARCEL! Where is my brother?"

"I got guys out looking for him right now." Marcel answers honestly, there was really not much else he could do. Elijah, enraged, starts throwing vampires against the walls.

"Elijah!" Hayley calls out from up on the balcony, her tone chastising. Khalia considered just letting her brother having his way. She is bone tired from the day, the spell has slowly started to wear of but it will still take a few hours and more than two bloodbags to get her back to normal. On the other hand, they need every pair of eyes and legs available.

With a resounding sigh, Khalia sped in front of her brother, wondering why she had to be the grown up one more often these days. "Elijah, that is enough. I understand your frustration, they are my brother and sister as well. But hurting the vampire's is not going to help you, we need all the eyes we can get and you are scaring them."

With a sigh of his own, Elijah nodded and looked around the room, eyeing very vampire he threw around, the fear crystal clear in their eyes. "Forgive my temper. When my family is in danger, my anger knows no bounds."

"Would you look at that." Khalia threw her brother a sarcastic smile, letting go of his shoulders. "This century's family meeting started out with you helping the Mystic Falls gang to kill Niklaus and now you are going to save him. So grown up." She grinned, smacking his shoulder.

Elijah rolled his eyes and turned to Marcel. "What happened?"

Marcel was clearly just as frustrated as them. "Klaus threw one of his classic temper tantrums, snapped my neck, tried to take on a coven of witches by himself. He got dropped. I don't know where he is or how to find him."

"When we find him, I am going to kick his arse." Khalia promised, scowling and snarling.

"They also have Rebekah." His eyes darkened with anger. Khalia grinned, she knew that look. It was the Mikaelson 'I'm about to murder everyone' look. "Every one of you will help me to find them. I'm gonna kill them all."

Khalia chuckled darkly, the excitement on her face clear. "Well that's the best fucking thing I've heard all day."

***

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I hope the spell Celeste out on Khalia was realistic enough. Also, I have decided to create a love interest for Jackson but that doesn't mean it would be smooth sailing from there on because I love me some drama.

Spoiler alert : the wedding is still happening. (or is it?) *smirks* Guess you'll have to keep reading to find out.

Also, sorry for the lack of updates.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

-Mixie