•

"The heart has its reasons

Of which reason knows nothing."

Cora lunged at the woman, finding only open space where she had stood seconds before, she whipped around to see Kate already stood across the apartment, in front of the large window.

Her brother's eyes glowed bright with anger. Her uncle had already shifted, growling lowly at the hunter. Strangely seeing them ready to fight made her rethink the situation, a hunter—an Argent— walked into a fight with three wolves unarmed? From where Cora was standing it seemed like a bad move, which meant she had to be missing something.

Something like how quickly she had moved across the room... Cora thought about the arsenal of weapons in her home, none of which she had had time to save from the fire before a hunter had tried to slice her in two. Then for a moment she considered the cell phone in her bag, the number she hadn't called in years— but she needed a way to survive the night, and who knew where he was or if he would even pick up?

Kate held up her hands. "I didn't come here to fight, I just want to talk."

Peter opened his mouth, that was never a good thing. "About what?" Cora spoke before he could, ignoring the irritated look he shot her.

"The Argents and Hales have been at each other's throats for years," Kate said, pacing as she spoke, and Cora could see it, the unnatural grace in even the most simple movements that told Cora the woman was no longer human. "Don't you get tired of that? Constantly fighting just for the right to live in your home town?"

"Get to the point," Peter snapped. Cora's nails cut into her palm as she resisted the not so uncommon urge to punch him.

"Help me and you'll never have to worry about the Argents again."

Derek and Cora shared a look. Kate had been gone a long time, long enough not to know about the peace they had found with Argent. She glanced at her uncle and he seemed to have the same thought as her.

"How do we know for sure?" Peter spoke and for once Cora didn't try to stop him. "What's to stop you from killing us as soon as you get what you want?"

Kate spread her arms. "You'll just have to have a little faith."

Peter scoffed. "Faith is something we're all short on."

Cora tensed as Kate reached into her pocket. "I figured," she pulled out a piece of paper, yellowed with age. "That's why I'm offering this."

Her uncle's eyes cut upward before falling back to Kate. "And what, exactly, is that?"

"Immortality."

Cora looked closer at the paper, it was old but it couldn't be what she thought it was... How would Kate find that spell anyway? "How do we know that's real?" she said sardonically, effectively keeping the fear masked. "Are we just going to have to have faith?"

Kate ignored her. "I can make you invincible, I just need you to take care of someone for me."

Peter crossed his arms. "And who would that be?"

"Come on, I'm not stupid," she pocketed the supposed spell. "I'll tell you when we have a binding agreement."

"Binding?" Derek spoke up.

"The spell has two parts," Cora grit out. "Once you start the process you have to finish it."

Kate smiled, Cora wanted to slap the expression off her face. "Aren't we smart?"

Gold flared in her eyes. "Do you really think we would ever—?"

"Let us think about it," Peter cut in as he stepped forward.

"Peter!" Derek and Cora both growled.

"Shut up," he growled back.

"Tell you what," Kate shrugged, "I'll give you until, say, tomorrow night?"

"Go to hell," Cora snapped.

"We'll be here," Peter said.

Kate flashed a smirk at Cora. "At least one of you still has the Hale charm." Then, in confirmation of what Cora already knew, Kate disappeared in a blur.

Kate Argent was a vampire, and they were screwed.

Downtown was busy, the stores and streets full of people even after dark. Davina watched her drink fizz as she waited for Marcel in the small restaurant.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Maybe Marcel had a good reason for being late.

"Hey," she answered with a smile. "I expect you have a good explanation for keeping me waiting?"

"I don't recall us having plans." The smile vanished from Davina's face. Not Marcel.

"Kol, I can't do this right now."

"Why? Whoever you're waiting for hasn't shown up yet," he said easily, but there was something in his voice... Not quite anger, not sadness.

"Fine," she said coldly.

"Before Marcellus made his dramatic entrance we were discussing the possibility of honesty between us. Would you consider that?" He sounded so terribly reasonable for a psychopath.

"I... I don't know if honesty would help anything." A part of her hoped it would, that it could even fix them. But in the still sane part of her mind she knew it would only be worse to know the specifics.

"It's worth a try," his voice softened as he added, "I miss you."

She didn't want to miss him. She shouldn't miss him. But, damn, she did. "You better not be wasting my time, Mikaelson," she warned softly

Cars were in the driveway, in the dim twilight lights glowed gold through the windows of the large house, and Finn could hear the slow pulse of undead hearts. No pretending they weren't home.

Without the IV pumping her full of fluids Freya quickly began to deteriorate, her skin becoming sallow and her breaths were coming in uneven pants. She swayed as they moved towards the front door.

Walking up the steps she stumbled, Finn caught her before she could hit the floor. She leaned heavily on him as they stood on the porch. He raised his hand, hesitated, then knocked on the door.

There was a silence, then the faint creak of floorboards and irritated muttering. A moment later the door swung open harder than necessary, but the irritation on Niklaus's face quickly shifted to shock.

Finn smiled blandly. "Hello, brother."

Thunk. Another ball bounced off the frame of the net. Growling in frustration, Liam dropped his stick. Ever since he got thrown out of Devenford and sent to Beacon Hills High he had been off his game. He wouldn't make the team at this rate, much less first line.

"I've never played lacrosse, but isn't the point to get it into the goal."

Liam turned to the bleachers to see the reason he had gotten expelled lounging across the metal benches. "Screw you, Raeken."

"That's not very nice," Theo tilted his head with an infuriating half smirk. "Then again, neither was breaking my nose."

Liam stalked to the net, snatching up the ball and marching back to where he left his stick. He picked up the stick, and set the ball in the grass in front of him.

"Remember, aim for the net."

Liam grit his teeth, scooping up the ball with his stick, and hurling it at the net. Thunk.

A slow clap came from Theo as Liam headed once again to the net. "Nice shot, Dunbar!"

Liam grabbed the ball and lobbed it at Theo. Disappointed to see it miss him and bounce harmlessly back down the bleachers. Theo watched it indifferently then looked slowly to Liam. "Do I need to say anything?"

His shoulders slumped. "What are you even doing here?"

"You aren't the only one who needed to find a new school," Theo stood, throwing the ball back to him. "See you around, Liam."

A\N: a real update (yay!) It's short but I hope to update this story more often, I was really motivated when I got a new review even though I haven't posted a new chapter in forever. Thanks for reading. The quote is Blaise Pascal.