Always & Forever

The next morning, Kol and Octavia made plans to go out to the forests that stretched outside of the city, even past the bayou where most of the wolves in New Orleans lived to see the witch that Kol and Freya had tracked down.

"We have to see if Elijah and Nik will come with us, Koley."

Octavia said the words to her best friend for probably the tenth time, and wasn't surprised when he firmly shook his head.

"No. We don't need either of my foolish brothers. Neither of them were able to help."

Kol looked at her with what she liked to fondly refer to as his 'wounded puppy' look. She knew he was just looking for recognition that he'd been the one to help her before his brothers, so she offered it to him.

"Listen, love, I know you're the one that helped. I know how hard you and Freya worked to find this witch. But think about this, Koley. We're going way out of the city to meet maybe one of the most powerful witches we've ever met. Logically, she's probably going to have a posse with her so it would be an advantage to have Elijah and Nik with us. Especially since I'm not at full power at all. My abilities get weaker by the moment, I swear."

Kol mulled over her words for a moment and then rolled his eyes.

"Fine. But you're asking them to come. I've attained us a car, so I'll be waiting outside."

Octavia smiled and kissed him on the forehead before heading upstairs to find his brothers.

She climbed the stairs and made her way down the hallway, but just before she got to Nik's bedroom door, she suddenly felt faint and like she was going to fall over. She tried to call out for someone, but didn't manage to before she slipped out of consciousness. She was acutely aware of her head hitting the hard floor, and then the world went completely black.

Next thing she knew, she heard Nik and Elijah standing over her, fussing over her. All she could think about was that they were arguing about something and annoying her.

She tried to tell them to shut up, but wasn't able to open her eyes for some reason. Somehow, she seemed to be trapped in her mind or something.

A moment later, she was in a large room with lavish furniture that she instantly recognized as her childhood living room. She ran to the door that used to lead out to the large courtyard, but it was locked and wouldn't budge. The other doors that had led to other rooms wouldn't move either.

"Well, shit."

She plopped down on one of the couches and chewed on a fingernail, wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this one.

~~~~~

Finally, after what felt like forever, Elijah appeared in front of her. He had a misty aura around him that she knew meant he wasn't really there, just being projected.

"Took you jerks long enough."

She tried to smirk at him, but he wasn't having it.

"We've been trying to get in by ourselves for hours. Something was blocking us. We had to wait until Freya was back from running an errand. Kol would like you to know that you're a 'giant asshole' for leaving him waiting in the car."

Elijah moved and sat beside her on the couch. She knew she couldn't touch him since he wasn't actually psychically there, but she ached to.

"What's happening to me, 'Lijah?"

"It has something to do with your curse, Freya thinks. It seems your body has shut down a little bit."

"No shit, Elijah. Don't baby me, okay? Tell me for real what's going on."

"Freya's not sure she's going to be able to wake you."

He said the words, and she could hear the concern that laced his tone.

"W-what?"

"I'm sure she'll figure it out. She's more than capable."

"Elijah, I'm scared. What if this thing kills me?"

"We're not going to let that happen and you know it."

"Just don't leave me."

"Never, my little one."