In the midst of the broken, grieving sobs, she can make out Rebekah trying to convince her to stay, to work with her, to be her spy on the inside, but Davina won’t listen. She can’t. Tim is dead, and Klaus is responsible, and if she knows anything about older vampires, they will give up anything to be known. Marcel did, for Klaus. Rebekah may be angry with him now, but anger is fast and fleeting. One way or another, she’ll find her way to her brother’s side again. None of them can be trusted.
Rebekah may be an Original, but Davina more than approved last night that she had the means to overpower them. Rebekah doesn’t require the dramatics of her brothers – instead, she Davina simply snaps her neck and then flees.
She doesn’t know if Josh will follow her, but she hopes he doesn’t.
The Quarter is full of stragglers from the festivities the night before, though not enough for her to entirely disappear. A teenage girl covered in tears isn’t the most subtle of options either, but she does her best to ignore them, just wanting to get away.
She can’t go back to the church. She can’t go back to the witches. She honestly doesn’t know where to go, and she can feel that grief swelling in her magic bubbling like she’s about to explode until she hears her name somewhere among the crowd.
“Davina?”
She turns, eyes landing on the blond behind her. Tandy doesn’t give her a chance to speak, confusion changing to concern once she sees the look on the other girl’s face.
“Oh my god, are you okay?”
Davina desperately wants to succumb to tears round two, but she can’t. Not here. Not while they’re so far out in the open. “Not really,” she whispers, a hand coming up to brush at her cheeks. “But we can’t stay here. Is there somewhere we can go?”
Tandy glances around. “The church?”
“It’s not safe anymore.”
The blond takes that in, before nodding and wrapping an arm around her friend’s shoulders. “Okay. I know a place.”
Davina should probably ask more questions, but at the moment, she’s so desperate to get away that she doesn’t fight it. Instead, she leans in to the blond next to her and lets Tandy lead her away.
- - - - - -
The basement Tandy is currently living out of isn’t what Davina expected. It’s not much of a home, beyond the cot in the corner mixed in with the various electrical equipment and workspace. Davina squints at her in confusion, and she smirks.
“I talked the owner into making it an actual lease, you know? So it’s safe.”
Tandy’s introduction into the supernatural had been slow, first with witches and later, vampires. Vampires were the more important of the three because, without magic to protect herself, Tandy needed to learn how not to be compelled, how not to invite people into her home without thinking. It’s smart, what she did, but she doesn’t know if it’ll be enough to hold off the Originals forever.
“That’s smart.” Davina moves to settle on the cot, tucking her knees into her chest under the flow of her long skirt. “I’m glad you have somewhere safe.”
“Me too. Especially now.” Tandy sits next to her, settling onto the cot and reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder gently. “What happened?”
“Tim’s dead.”
Tandy recoils. Her hand stays where it is, but she’s visibly shocked. “The violin player at school?”
Davina nods, before recounting the whole story. How Klaus was determined to break her, so he taunted her with the thing she wanted most, threatening to take it more blatantly from her several times before letting her think she won.
Until she didn’t, and he poisoned them both, because of Klaus’ compulsion.
It’s a slow story, with breaks for crying jags along the way, but by the end, Tandy is horrified. “He can’t just do that.”
“He’s an Original,” Davina replies. “He can do whatever he wants. He’s older and smarter than all of us. He’s been playing the game for so much longer.”
“He’s a bully.” The words sound like she would have spat them if she could, like a snake with venom. “And he needs to be put in his place.”
“I tried,” Davina sighs. “Believe me; I’ve tried. But he took Marcel, and now I have no one to help me.”
“You do. You have me.” Tandy shifts, pulling her into a warm hug. “And we’ll figure this out. They’re not the only ones with surprises.”
Davina accepts the comfort, for now, but she’s not convinced that it will get them far. Light daggers won’t do much against vampires that can’t die, but it’s safe to say that it will likely be the last thing they expect.
“Just get some rest,” Tandy sighs. “We’ll figure it out in the morning.”
Sleep doesn’t come easily, but eventually, it does come, curled up on a dingy cot in the basement of a building she doesn’t know. Grief and anger exhaust and energize in equal measure, and as soon as she closes her eyes, she succumbs to the weight of everything that’s happened.
In the morning, she wakes coughing up clumps of dirt and debris onto the basement floor, and earthquakes are echoing her anger, which leads to a whole other set of problems.
- - - - - -
It doesn’t stop with the earth quaking around them periodically. Next, come winds so violent they can hear the support beams of the house shake, then a torrential downpour that leaks through the cracks in the foundation. Tandy returns from trying to get them food soaked to the skin.
“It’s like a hurricane out there,” she says as she pulls open her backpack and retrieves a slightly soggy sack of burgers. “I’ve never seen a storm like this.”
Davina glances up at her. “I think it’s me.”
Tandy frowns, before turning to face her. “What do you mean?”
“I think … I think it’s the Harvest, wanting to complete.”
“You mean wanting you to die.”
“She’s not wrong, love.” They both turn, and looking up at the top of the stairs are Klaus and Marcel, trapped behind the open door. Klaus’s hand is damp, and from the light, Davina can’t tell if it’s rain or blood, but she desperately hopes it’s the former. “Care to let us in?”
“Hell no.” Tandy squares on the landing, staring up at them with the fury only a wounded teenager can muster. “You can stay right where you are.”
“Not very hospitable,” Klaus replies casually. “Why don’t you come to discuss this a little closer?”
“Why, so you can compel me?” Tandy raises an eyebrow. “She told me about all your tricks. I think the better question is, why shouldn’t I punch you in the face.”
“Charming as that request may be, as I’m sure Davina has told you, that goal will not end well for you.” He opens his mouth to continue, and Marcel cuts him off.
“We just want to talk to Davina.”
“Why should I trust you?” Davina pushes up from the cot and positions herself so that she’s visible to the two immortals at the top of the stairs, arms crossed in front of her chest. She knows that she doesn’t have much longer. She can feel the magic tearing her apart, and while she had hoped that the magic she contained would just disappear into the ether, she should have known it wouldn’t be that simple.
Nothing with magic ever is.
“Because I want to help you, Davina. That’s all I ever wanted to do was to help you.”
“If you’re here to get her to complete the Harvest, the answer is no. She shouldn’t have to die for your ritual magic bullshit.”
“No, in an ideal world, she shouldn’t,” Klaus begins, “but unfortunately, we’ve come to a place where she does. The magic she holds isn’t just tearing her apart; it’s tearing New Orleans apart. If we let it run it’s course as it stands, she will die, and so will thousands of people in the city. But if we complete the Harvest as intended, she’s the only one who dies, and once the ritual is complete, she comes back to life again.” Klaus smiles at them both. “I’m sure you can see which one is win-win.”
“What if it’s a lie?” Tandy frowns. “What if it’s all a bullshit fairytale, and she doesn’t come back at all?”
“Then, thousands of people still won’t lose their lives.”
“Since when do you care about human life?” Davina challenges, looking directly at Klaus. “You’re not doing this out of the goodness of your heart that you don’t have.”
“I’m not. But I’ve watched this city burn twice before, and I’m not going to do this again.”
“Davina.” Marcel’s voice is pleading now. His serious voice where he’s trying to convince her that this is for her own good. “I’m sorry. But this is the only way.”
Davina glances from them to Tandy. Then her face softens. “Give me a minute? Alone?”
“Given how slippery you’ve been as of late, I think I’ll wait right here, thank you.”
Davina turns to Klaus with a glare, before raising her hands. “Get out!” Her voice echoes off the walls, and the magic blows them back into the house, before slamming the basement door. The surge of magic hits her like a wave, and immediately she turns, vomiting more water onto the basement floor. It’s starting to boil in her gut now, rolling swells, and she knows this is going to come to a head soon.
And she can’t let anyone else get hurt. Not the way Tim was hurt.
“You can’t be seriously thinking about doing this.”
“Marcel’s right. He wouldn’t be here if it weren’t the only way.” As much as she and Marcel are at odds, she knows that he was always looking out for her. He saved her the day they met, and she knows that he wouldn’t be suggesting completing the Harvest was there any other option.
Tandy’s face crumbles. “This isn’t fair.”
“No, it’s not.” But nothing about magic or the supernatural was fair. Davina makes her way over slowly, before resting her hands on Tandy’s shoulders gently. “Thank you. For being a good friend. I’m not sure I always deserved it.”
“You deserved enough.” Tandy’s lip quivers, and she leans forward, wrapping her arms around her friend and squeezing the other girl tightly like it might be the last time. “How will we know if it works?”
“The rain will stop.” Davina pulls back with a sigh. “And I’ll come to find you when I come back.” She pulls away and grabs one of Tandy’s notebooks and scribbling down a number. “And if I don’t come back –”
“You’ll come back.”
“If I don’t,” Davina pushes the piece of paper into her hand. “That’s the name and number of a friend of mine. She’s human, and she’ll protect you. You can trust her.”
Tandy leans in to hug her again, one last time. “This sucks.”
Davina laughs. “Yeah. It really, really sucks.” Davina pulls back and gives her a small, sad smile. “But maybe sometimes, fairy tales do come true.”
She doesn’t wait for a comeback – instead, she leaves up the stairs and back into the waiting clutches of the Mikaelson family.
- - - - - -
The rain stops an hour later.
Tandy isn’t typically one to play with fire, but when she doesn’t hear from Davina after that, she makes her way over to the Abattoir, just to take a peek. What she finds is furniture smashed, and Marcel raving about how she was dead.
Davina was dead.
She doesn’t linger long enough to get herself caught. Instead, she stumbles out into the street, following her feet to get away from the lion’s jaws and trying to find somewhere safe. Eventually, she returns to St. Anne’s, plants herself in a pew, and pulls out her phone with shaking hands.
Davina’s note in one hand, her phone in the other, she quietly taps on the number, before putting it to her ear. It rings twice before a woman’s voice answers.
“Hello?”
“Is this Cami?”
“Yes?”
“My name’s Tandy, I’m a friend of Davina’s.” She lifts one hand to brush against her eyes. “She said if I was in trouble, you might be able to help me?”
“Where are you?” There’s no silence on the other end of the line. No hesitation, no wait. Just an immediate hand in the darkness and Tandy can see why Davina suggested her. “I’ll come to get you.”
“St. Anne’s. Do you know where that is?”
Cami laughs, and the sound feels too light for the night Tandy’s had but has a way of making her feel lighter as well. “I do. I know that church very well. I’ll be right there.”
Tandy hangs up and stars up at the altar ahead of her with a small sigh. Tomorrow they start again. But it still doesn’t feel right to start without Davina in it.
be afraid of the old, they'll inherit your soul ~ cloak and dagger/tvdverse ~ 2,210
In the midst of the broken, grieving sobs, she can make out Rebekah trying to convince her to stay, to work with her, to be her spy on the inside, but Davina won’t listen. She can’t. Tim is dead, and Klaus is responsible, and if she knows anything about older vampires, they will give up anything to be known. Marcel did, for Klaus. Rebekah may be angry with him now, but anger is fast and fleeting. One way or another, she’ll find her way to her brother’s side again. None of them can be trusted.
Rebekah may be an Original, but Davina more than approved last night that she had the means to overpower them. Rebekah doesn’t require the dramatics of her brothers – instead, she Davina simply snaps her neck and then flees.
She doesn’t know if Josh will follow her, but she hopes he doesn’t.
The Quarter is full of stragglers from the festivities the night before, though not enough for her to entirely disappear. A teenage girl covered in tears isn’t the most subtle of options either, but she does her best to ignore them, just wanting to get away.
She can’t go back to the church. She can’t go back to the witches. She honestly doesn’t know where to go, and she can feel that grief swelling in her magic bubbling like she’s about to explode until she hears her name somewhere among the crowd.
“Davina?”
She turns, eyes landing on the blond behind her. Tandy doesn’t give her a chance to speak, confusion changing to concern once she sees the look on the other girl’s face.
“Oh my god, are you okay?”
Davina desperately wants to succumb to tears round two, but she can’t. Not here. Not while they’re so far out in the open. “Not really,” she whispers, a hand coming up to brush at her cheeks. “But we can’t stay here. Is there somewhere we can go?”
Tandy glances around. “The church?”
“It’s not safe anymore.”
The blond takes that in, before nodding and wrapping an arm around her friend’s shoulders. “Okay. I know a place.”
Davina should probably ask more questions, but at the moment, she’s so desperate to get away that she doesn’t fight it. Instead, she leans in to the blond next to her and lets Tandy lead her away.
The basement Tandy is currently living out of isn’t what Davina expected. It’s not much of a home, beyond the cot in the corner mixed in with the various electrical equipment and workspace. Davina squints at her in confusion, and she smirks.
“I talked the owner into making it an actual lease, you know? So it’s safe.”
Tandy’s introduction into the supernatural had been slow, first with witches and later, vampires. Vampires were the more important of the three because, without magic to protect herself, Tandy needed to learn how not to be compelled, how not to invite people into her home without thinking. It’s smart, what she did, but she doesn’t know if it’ll be enough to hold off the Originals forever.
“That’s smart.” Davina moves to settle on the cot, tucking her knees into her chest under the flow of her long skirt. “I’m glad you have somewhere safe.”
“Me too. Especially now.” Tandy sits next to her, settling onto the cot and reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder gently. “What happened?”
“Tim’s dead.”
Tandy recoils. Her hand stays where it is, but she’s visibly shocked. “The violin player at school?”
Davina nods, before recounting the whole story. How Klaus was determined to break her, so he taunted her with the thing she wanted most, threatening to take it more blatantly from her several times before letting her think she won.
Until she didn’t, and he poisoned them both, because of Klaus’ compulsion.
It’s a slow story, with breaks for crying jags along the way, but by the end, Tandy is horrified. “He can’t just do that.”
“He’s an Original,” Davina replies. “He can do whatever he wants. He’s older and smarter than all of us. He’s been playing the game for so much longer.”
“He’s a bully.” The words sound like she would have spat them if she could, like a snake with venom. “And he needs to be put in his place.”
“I tried,” Davina sighs. “Believe me; I’ve tried. But he took Marcel, and now I have no one to help me.”
“You do. You have me.” Tandy shifts, pulling her into a warm hug. “And we’ll figure this out. They’re not the only ones with surprises.”
Davina accepts the comfort, for now, but she’s not convinced that it will get them far. Light daggers won’t do much against vampires that can’t die, but it’s safe to say that it will likely be the last thing they expect.
“Just get some rest,” Tandy sighs. “We’ll figure it out in the morning.”
Sleep doesn’t come easily, but eventually, it does come, curled up on a dingy cot in the basement of a building she doesn’t know. Grief and anger exhaust and energize in equal measure, and as soon as she closes her eyes, she succumbs to the weight of everything that’s happened.
In the morning, she wakes coughing up clumps of dirt and debris onto the basement floor, and earthquakes are echoing her anger, which leads to a whole other set of problems.
It doesn’t stop with the earth quaking around them periodically. Next, come winds so violent they can hear the support beams of the house shake, then a torrential downpour that leaks through the cracks in the foundation. Tandy returns from trying to get them food soaked to the skin.
“It’s like a hurricane out there,” she says as she pulls open her backpack and retrieves a slightly soggy sack of burgers. “I’ve never seen a storm like this.”
Davina glances up at her. “I think it’s me.”
Tandy frowns, before turning to face her. “What do you mean?”
“I think … I think it’s the Harvest, wanting to complete.”
“You mean wanting you to die.”
“She’s not wrong, love.” They both turn, and looking up at the top of the stairs are Klaus and Marcel, trapped behind the open door. Klaus’s hand is damp, and from the light, Davina can’t tell if it’s rain or blood, but she desperately hopes it’s the former. “Care to let us in?”
“Hell no.” Tandy squares on the landing, staring up at them with the fury only a wounded teenager can muster. “You can stay right where you are.”
“Not very hospitable,” Klaus replies casually. “Why don’t you come to discuss this a little closer?”
“Why, so you can compel me?” Tandy raises an eyebrow. “She told me about all your tricks. I think the better question is, why shouldn’t I punch you in the face.”
“Charming as that request may be, as I’m sure Davina has told you, that goal will not end well for you.” He opens his mouth to continue, and Marcel cuts him off.
“We just want to talk to Davina.”
“Why should I trust you?” Davina pushes up from the cot and positions herself so that she’s visible to the two immortals at the top of the stairs, arms crossed in front of her chest. She knows that she doesn’t have much longer. She can feel the magic tearing her apart, and while she had hoped that the magic she contained would just disappear into the ether, she should have known it wouldn’t be that simple.
Nothing with magic ever is.
“Because I want to help you, Davina. That’s all I ever wanted to do was to help you.”
“If you’re here to get her to complete the Harvest, the answer is no. She shouldn’t have to die for your ritual magic bullshit.”
“No, in an ideal world, she shouldn’t,” Klaus begins, “but unfortunately, we’ve come to a place where she does. The magic she holds isn’t just tearing her apart; it’s tearing New Orleans apart. If we let it run it’s course as it stands, she will die, and so will thousands of people in the city. But if we complete the Harvest as intended, she’s the only one who dies, and once the ritual is complete, she comes back to life again.” Klaus smiles at them both. “I’m sure you can see which one is win-win.”
“What if it’s a lie?” Tandy frowns. “What if it’s all a bullshit fairytale, and she doesn’t come back at all?”
“Then, thousands of people still won’t lose their lives.”
“Since when do you care about human life?” Davina challenges, looking directly at Klaus. “You’re not doing this out of the goodness of your heart that you don’t have.”
“I’m not. But I’ve watched this city burn twice before, and I’m not going to do this again.”
“Davina.” Marcel’s voice is pleading now. His serious voice where he’s trying to convince her that this is for her own good. “I’m sorry. But this is the only way.”
Davina glances from them to Tandy. Then her face softens. “Give me a minute? Alone?”
“Given how slippery you’ve been as of late, I think I’ll wait right here, thank you.”
Davina turns to Klaus with a glare, before raising her hands. “Get out!” Her voice echoes off the walls, and the magic blows them back into the house, before slamming the basement door. The surge of magic hits her like a wave, and immediately she turns, vomiting more water onto the basement floor. It’s starting to boil in her gut now, rolling swells, and she knows this is going to come to a head soon.
And she can’t let anyone else get hurt. Not the way Tim was hurt.
“You can’t be seriously thinking about doing this.”
“Marcel’s right. He wouldn’t be here if it weren’t the only way.” As much as she and Marcel are at odds, she knows that he was always looking out for her. He saved her the day they met, and she knows that he wouldn’t be suggesting completing the Harvest was there any other option.
Tandy’s face crumbles. “This isn’t fair.”
“No, it’s not.” But nothing about magic or the supernatural was fair. Davina makes her way over slowly, before resting her hands on Tandy’s shoulders gently. “Thank you. For being a good friend. I’m not sure I always deserved it.”
“You deserved enough.” Tandy’s lip quivers, and she leans forward, wrapping her arms around her friend and squeezing the other girl tightly like it might be the last time. “How will we know if it works?”
“The rain will stop.” Davina pulls back with a sigh. “And I’ll come to find you when I come back.” She pulls away and grabs one of Tandy’s notebooks and scribbling down a number. “And if I don’t come back –”
“You’ll come back.”
“If I don’t,” Davina pushes the piece of paper into her hand. “That’s the name and number of a friend of mine. She’s human, and she’ll protect you. You can trust her.”
Tandy leans in to hug her again, one last time. “This sucks.”
Davina laughs. “Yeah. It really, really sucks.” Davina pulls back and gives her a small, sad smile. “But maybe sometimes, fairy tales do come true.”
She doesn’t wait for a comeback – instead, she leaves up the stairs and back into the waiting clutches of the Mikaelson family.
The rain stops an hour later.
Tandy isn’t typically one to play with fire, but when she doesn’t hear from Davina after that, she makes her way over to the Abattoir, just to take a peek. What she finds is furniture smashed, and Marcel raving about how she was dead.
Davina was dead.
She doesn’t linger long enough to get herself caught. Instead, she stumbles out into the street, following her feet to get away from the lion’s jaws and trying to find somewhere safe. Eventually, she returns to St. Anne’s, plants herself in a pew, and pulls out her phone with shaking hands.
Davina’s note in one hand, her phone in the other, she quietly taps on the number, before putting it to her ear. It rings twice before a woman’s voice answers.
“Hello?”
“Is this Cami?”
“Yes?”
“My name’s Tandy, I’m a friend of Davina’s.” She lifts one hand to brush against her eyes. “She said if I was in trouble, you might be able to help me?”
“Where are you?” There’s no silence on the other end of the line. No hesitation, no wait. Just an immediate hand in the darkness and Tandy can see why Davina suggested her. “I’ll come to get you.”
“St. Anne’s. Do you know where that is?”
Cami laughs, and the sound feels too light for the night Tandy’s had but has a way of making her feel lighter as well. “I do. I know that church very well. I’ll be right there.”
Tandy hangs up and stars up at the altar ahead of her with a small sigh. Tomorrow they start again. But it still doesn’t feel right to start without Davina in it.