Davina shivered as violently when the truck's heater had gone out somewhere in North Carolina, which had hit her hard that night. Determination, though, had her stubbornly pushing onward. She'd have killed to have a decent radio station but then cringed as it reminded her of Kol's obsession with the radio. He could and would drive her nuts with his habit of switching stations at will and on a whim when they did road trips. The last road they had taken, she had ended up banning him from the radio as they drove in silence.
She coasted into Mystic Falls on fumes and puttered to the nearest parking lot, some cheap outlet stores. Shivering violently, she pulled the musty, old quilt around herself tighter as she pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen before she started compiling a 'Honey To-Do' list.
No matter what, she would have to return for the Harvest; that was a must. She couldn't evade this death, and if she didn't participate in the Harvest, then the powers within her wouldn't just destroy her but all of New Orleans in some grand, biblical disaster, which would leave ruin and devastation. And probably a good portion of the Southern United States if she was honest; this was too much power for any one witch. Plus, she was a fire-inclined witch, and as the Harvest Girl of Fire, she would have to die to not have what happened last time happen this time.
Also, if she died, that meant she, thirty-four-year-old Davina, might not be coming back, and she didn't want sixteen-year-old her lost and confused or worse, alone. Davina would have to make sure she didn't wake alone or in a crypt. Marcel had recovered her last time from her crypt, but she had still awoken in a shroud, which was unpleasant, to say the least.
Pushing unpleasant memories out of her head, Davina took the pen and paper and started compiling the Honey To-Do List:
Sealing Esther's spirit/soul
She needed to do this swiftly because Esther was a threat in the future, and Davina did not want to deal with her.
Locate, keep, and hide the bodies of Esther and Mikael
Davina knew she'd need them later because of Dahlia. And that summed up what she knew about taking down Dahlia.
Devise clear instructions for destroying Dahlia; stress not to listen to Freya
Davina didn't desire that to unfold the same way twice. But this also meant she'd have to find Freya, and that had Davina snarling. While she hadn't forgiven Elijah entirely, the man had died, and Davina had made peace with him through his death. But Freya… Davina could never and would never forgive Freya.
Locate Hayley
That was a personal preference because Davina and Hayley had gotten on exceptionally well once they were friends. In a lot of ways, Hayley was the older sister Davina had never had. Hayley was also the one person who made Elijah better, so she wanted to set them up before Elijah got to the point of sacrificing nineteen-year-olds.
Locate All White Oak Stakes
This was to ensure Kol didn't die, but also to keep the Originals safe.
Seal the Hollow off before she can rise
This one would be difficult at best, near impossible at worst, but it would have to be done.
Unlink Marcel and Josh from Klaus
She didn't want them to die if Klaus died. And given the amount of enemies her brother-in-law possessed, she knew it was a possibility.
Return to New Orleans in time for the Harvest before biblical plagues started spewing from her
That was solely so she avoided the agony of last time. That death had not been pleasant, and she didn't really want to experience it again.
Keep Kol ALIVE!!!!
Keeping her impulsive, manic, homicidal husband alive was a personal preference so she could throttle him for being an impulsive idiot when his emotions ran hot. That was all she knew about Kol's first death; he'd been emotional and running off his emotions rather than his brain and died because of it. So, she'd have to fix that. Davina swore she had all the impulse control in her and Kol's marriage.
Her fingers were shaking so much she blew into her hand to warm them. She needed to ditch the truck and find someplace warm to stay. Tucking the 'Honey to-do list' into her pocket, she clambered out of the truck, wrapped up in her blanket, grabbed her duffle bag with her laptop and the map, securing it around her person before snatching the pillow and hugging it to herself as she rearranged the blanket around her shoulders.
Stupid East Coast winters—this was cold. Stupid cold, she called bullshit on Kol saying this was a mild winter; this was fucking miserable!
Walking swiftly into the town, Davina tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, keeping her head down as she hurried. People didn't look twice at her until she reached a cheap motel. Pulling the credit card she'd stolen from a gas station in Arkansas, she got the cheapest, smallest, dingy room with a heater. Dropping her bag on her bed, she pulled her laptop out and plugged it in. Setting up a few minor wards to keep herself concealed from the people in town as well as the witches who'd no doubt be hunting her sixteen-year-old self, she settled into the room.
It was crappy water pressure but scalding hot, which felt amazing after the harvest and a day of driving. She could feel the grime and blood washing down the drain and off her body before she felt human again.
Toweling off her hair, she sat on the bed and opened the laptop before she started with the town. Looking over the maps, she started getting the lay of the land. This was a small town with two grocery stores, one high school, a town square, and lots of forest. It was like where the school had been set up but without Salvatore's school. Davina looked over the map more carefully; she had never truly visited Mystic Falls. It was sort of off-limits to the Mikealsons; it was a big fat NO for Kol personally too.
Tapping her fingers together as she looked over the map, she pondered what to do and where to find her husband first. Davina honestly didn't know what exactly had happened in Mystic Falls to lead to Kol's death; he had never expanded on the events surrounding his first death.
Perhaps she could find Elijah to find Kol. Or… she'd probably find Klaus with more ease. Klaus never hid for long, or very well; he was invincible and immortal and brutal. She knew him at his most savage and brutal.
She paused in her thinking; then she would probably be safer finding Elijah first. He was the easier of the two to reason with. Davina had made peace with Elijah's role in her death and would admit Elijah was the easiest to reason with of his siblings, but that didn't make her happy about it. Rebekah would be out for negotiating because she held no leverage over her brothers despite her bickering with them. Davina's stomach snarled, reminding her she was hungry, having not eaten since Marcel had gotten her breakfast.
Grabbing the jacket she had been wearing before she left her room to hunt up a place to eat. The Harvest witch powers were swirling too close to the surface for her; she would have to make time to practice her magic so she didn't have episodes of no control again.Davina paused when she felt magic and vampires gathering, which had her looking over at the bar: Mystic Grill.
Hope had said Elijah claimed this place had the best burger, and she was starving; maybe she could grab a bite to eat and work more on her 'Honey To-Do List' so she could survive whatever weirdness she found herself in.
"Welcome to Mystic Grill," a hostess said. Davina smiled as she went to a seat and pulled her list out.
'Honey To-Do Lists' were a joke between her and Kol, a long-standing joke after they both refused to write bucket lists for things Davina wanted to do. Kol had laughed at the idea of a honey-do list because it was a list of things to do and to be done. So they had started calling their checklists for whatever mischief they were involved in a Honey To-Do List. This one was starting to annoy her because she did not know where to begin to get it accomplished.
Harvest had to be the last thing on her list.
"Hi, I'm Matt; I'll be your host this evening," a tall, athletic man declared as he loomed over her. She smiled as he handed her a menu. "Can I start you off with anything?"
"A Dr. Pepper, please," she asked as she opened the menu to look through it carefully. Burgers and fries were what she wanted first. It didn't take long for the young man to return.
"So… I haven't seen you around here before," he offered her lamely.
"I'm just looking for a friend," she answered blandly.
He bobbed his head a bit and smiled; she smiled back as charmingly as she could. "I'll take a burger and fries with a strawberry milkshake and a bottle of your hottest hot sauce," she ordered as she handed back the menu.
She watched him go and then cast a small illusion spell on her 'Honey To-Do List' before taking a sip of her Dr. Pepper. Watching the people around her, she smiled a bit, seeing the people interacting and mingling; it all looked so normal and felt a bit like New Orleans, but more… secretive.
The music being played wasn't her thing, not really her jam, but it wasn't horrible; Rousseau's was still better. She missed the near-constant flow of jazz from her city; it was a weakness she hadn't been expecting, if she were honest. Kol conceded that the jazz was a sign that her tastes in music weren't wholly irredeemable. She smiled to herself, thinking of her husband, when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, which had her attention snapping over to the group with eyes on her.
There was a witch there, staring at Davina with bright green eyes. But more curiously, Davina saw Caroline Forbes, a woman she'd only seen photos of at Hope's school. The willowy brunette was glaring at Davina, as were her two big brooding shadows of vampires. The big brooding man with a defined jaw and green eyes was looking conflicted, staring at her, while the other one had black hair and ghostly blue eyes. The four vampires, though, stared at Davina intently, while the witch looked conflicted and nervous. Finally, two humans joined the group: the young waiter named Matt, and the other boy, who was tall, lean, with black hair and a nervous disposition about him.
Davina turned her attention back to the music; if Caroline was a part of that group, Davina would wager that was who Klaus was playing with. Kol had been gleeful to inform Davina about all the dirt on Klaus and Caroline because he loved his brother's doomed relationships that weren't Cami. Davina had never dwelled on it, though.
She hummed a bit to the music and smiled when Matt brought her food. She noted the witch and vampires were still watching her intently, which had her frowning as she let her magic feel for a hex or curse on her food. Something was up, but it wasn't with anything she'd be eating.
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Kol had been reluctant to return to Mystic Falls; he didn't really like being near his old life and not connecting, and it enraged him that his spot had been destroyed by Nik's bloody house! He missed his human life more than his family could comprehend, and he was certain his brother thought keeping the land was a good peace offering, but the fact Nik had built over everything Kol loved had pissed him off. But then again, nothing was the same in this era; everything had changed in the last hundred or so years.
Well, near a hundred years, he supposed. He'd been put in the box in 1914; it was only 2011 now, so give or take a few years, he'd been in the box for a century. Rebekah and he had bitched about the times changing and how Nik had kept them both in boxes. He'd listened to her woes about a Stefan Salvatore, which annoyed Kol, but Bekah was his baby sister, so he indulged her.
The only big change in this era he had an immediate love-hate of was the vehicles; Kol missed horses, but at the same time he didn't. Horses had been something he couldn't connect with, which had made a deep ache in his soul, but at the same time he was now pleased he didn't have to bribe an animal to like him so he could travel like a mortal. Still, cars were interesting, especially where speed was concerned; they weren't as fast as he was, but they were fun all the same.
"Kol," Rebekah smiled as he got out and walked to the house. "You came back!"
"Of course, my baby sister called for help!" He chuckled as he let her hug him. "So what is it you desire that you could not tell me over the cellular phone?" he asked as he set her down.
"There's a cure," she said swiftly.
Kol raised a brow at her. A cure for what?
"Vampirism!" she whispered excitedly.
Kol stared at his little sister long and hard as he tried not to belie his interest in mortality. He knew no one thought he missed his mortality, but he did; he missed it more than anything because he missed being himself and being a witch. However, Bekah was the most vocal about her desires to be human again, so he had never laid out the false trails or ideas about being cured to her, and especially not since Finn's death and their mother's intent to murder them.
"What?" he whispered.
"Yes, a professor in town… He knows about a cure, Kol!" Rebekah informed him gleefully.
Kol almost smiled, but then he looked at Rebekah. Whatever cure it was, he would give it to Bekah, because she deserved to be human, but oh, how he wanted it.
"What do you need me for then?" he asked curiously.
"I… Nik wants the cure for Elena." She rolled her eyes at the thought. "So, I need your help getting it before Nik does," she explained.
Kol nodded slowly as they walked into the house and headed to his room.
"What do you know about the 'cure'?" he asked carefully.
"Nothing," she answered quickly, her smile not shrinking at the admittance. "But this is my chance, Kol; I can be human again!"
"Bekah, I need to know about this cure before you take it," he chided. "It might not be what they claim," he reminded her.
"Kol," she whined. "I just… Nik wants to waste it on that doppelgänger tart, and…"
"I don't disagree, Bex, but we need to know about it before you take it; you're a thousand years old," he pointed out in amusement.
"Oh."
"Yes, 'oh,'" he mocked and chuckled.
"Fine," she rolled her eyes. "The professor is working with Elena's witchy friend."
"I'll start looking into this," he promised.
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The girl was tiny, with long, dark brown hair and blue eyes, but according to Bonnie, she had to be immensely powerful because Bonnie couldn't figure out if she was human, vampire, witch, or werewolf. He didn't like her; he didn't like that she had shown up after all the trauma of the Originals. The woman showing up now was suspicious. The woman turned into an alleyway; he turned after her and surged up. She spun around, lifting a hand, flicking her wrist to send him crashing into the wall before she walked over.
He gasped as he felt his blood heating up.
"I'm going to assume you're the suspicious, jumpy, rebellious one of whatever team is going on," the girl said.
Now he saw she was incredibly young, fifteen or sixteen. Her stray strands of hair fluttered around her as she crouched down to his level.
He winced as he shivered and tried to keep from screaming in agony as the blood within him was heating up drastically. It felt like he was sitting in the sun, burning from within himself. The girl hadn't even trembled or strained as she worked.
"Ahck!" he finally cried out. "What are you doing?" he gasped as he gripped his head.
"I'm boiling your blood; you're feeling like you'll die, but I'm keeping it at just the tipping point between a life and death for a vampire," Davina said.
"You're… You're a witch," he gasped.
"Mmm," she nodded. "Now, who are you and your friends, and what have I walked into?" she asked.
"You're with them!" he hissed between pain as he rolled to his hands and knees.
"That entirely depends," she answered. "Answer me and you'll forget this pain and that I ever happened," she offered.
"I'm not telling you a thing!" he hissed.
"Shame," she pouted rather childishly before smiling wickedly. "You would've just saved me a lot of time if you had answered my questions," she decided and stood, flicking her hand which had him gasping in relief. "Don't try to follow me," she called out. "It never ends well," she chimed over her shoulder.
She flicked her wrist and he yelped as he went crashing up into a dumpster as the mysterious witch disappeared into the night.
-------------------------------------------
Elena walked after Damon, who was lying in a dumpster, looking at him as he lay there dazed and confused.
"Are you alright!?" she demanded as she pulled him out of the dumpster.
"Why am I in a dumpster?" he groaned.
"You were following that girl Bonnie couldn't read," Elena explained as she held him up.
"What girl?" he sputtered.
Elena stared dumbly at him as she held him up. "The girl who was in the Mystic Grill!"
"What girl!?" he demanded again.