As my mind was pulled into consiousness, I felt the warmth of a body next to me. Images of last night flashed through my mind - moans leaving my mouth as well as Davina's, lips on my skin setting me on fire, nails digging into my back and pretty mouth shaped marks on her body that settled the possessive streak inside me. I let myself bask in the bliss of sharing a bed with her for a few more seconds before I sit up.

I didn't turn to her, to afriad that if I did, I would give into my feelings once more.

Quickly and quietly I got dressed, everything except for my shoes and my jacket. My phone laid on the dresser and I checked it, seeing no messages from my brother I shoved it in the back of my jeans pocket.

"If you're going to sneak out, the least you could do is give me a kiss goodbye." Davina's sleepy voice said from behind me. I froze, then turned to her and clenched my fists.

"Because I'm the one who screwed up here?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Hurt flashes in her eyes and instantly, I feel guilty. "Sorry, Davina, I understand you regret what you did."

"More than anything." She nodded, sleepy eyes peering at me longingly.

I cleared my throat, pushing down the desire to get back into bed with her and cuddle the whole morning long. My phone rang, saving me from making this awkward or me ending up on top of her again. My brows furrowed when I saw it was Nik and I picked up immediately.

"Has Elijah awakened?" I asked him, not even bothering with a good morning, my voice hopeful even to my own ears.

"No, but I think I know how." His somewhat dejected yet optimistic voice came through the line. Nik, optimistic? He had to be absolutely sure that he knows the answer. My curiousity was peaked.

"How?" I asked, watching as Davina's eyes didn't move from me.

"Hayley just so happened to spot the same mark that Mikael used to have when mother put him to sleep." My brother's voice explained.

"Using a merlock orchid and then she'd wake him with the root." I snapped in realisation, excitement slowly starting to spread in my chest.

"Yes," Nik confirmed my words and I grinned widely. "The problem is, the orchids is extremely rare."

"I have a feeling that I'm not going to like what you're about to say." I noted and Nik chuckled lowly.

"We need to go look for it in the Bayou." My twin said and the smile dropped from my face, a scowl taking its place.

"The things we do for family. Meet you at the Compound in 10." I huffed and hung up on him.

"Is everything okay with Elijah?" Davina asked, eyes concerned. My heart swelled for a moment. I wish that she and Nik could set their differences. If for no other reason than for me. That point seems kind of moot now, seeing as how all of my trust in her was shattered when she brought back Mikael.

"It will be." I answered her, my relief probably evident on my face. "I need to go."

"I love you, Aleksios." Davina said, her voice earnest and soft.

"I know," I nodded at her, giving a sad smile. "I love you, too. But love doesn't mean anything if there's not trust."

***

Two hours later, my twin brother and I were wandering around the Bayou. We were looking for the merlock orchids to awaken Elijah, but having no such luck in finding it. The whole time, Niklaus has walked around with this irritating little smirk on his face.

"Why have you got that stupid look on your face?" I eventually broke, giving him an exsaperated look.

"I was just under the impression that things between you and Davina are done." He spoke nonchalantly, tone much to amused and light for my taste.

I frowned over at him, nodding once. "They are."

"Then why do you smell like her?" Nik asked, looking at me with a triumphant smirk.

My cheeks flushes and I mentally cursed myself for not taking a shower first. I gave my brother an indifferent look. "I had a momentary lapse of judgement. It won't happen again."

"Right, because you have so much self control when it comes to the little witch." My twin laughs and I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

As a thought crossed my mind, I smirked and turned the tables. "Tell me, Nik, how are things between you and Hayley lately?"

The smug smirk fell from his face and he gave me a glare, even as I spotted a faint flush on his cheeks. "I think we should just stick to the task at hand."

"Yeah, that might be best." I agreed, hiding my laughter. My twin was so in love with Hayley, it was not even funny. She clearly felt the same, but they were both to stubborn to admit it in the first place. Oh, well, they'll figure it out eventually.

It's kind of strange. I always thought that Hayley and Elijah had feelings for each other. But ever since they've sent away Hope, my twin and his baby mother has somehow become closer.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Niklaus grabbed me gently by the elbow. He pointed to my ears. Getting the message, I used my supernatural hearing and listened. Breathing and a heartbeat was heard somewhere behind us. I looked at my twin and gestured in the direction where the sounds was coming from with my head. He nodded at me and we vamp-speed over to where the man as been watching us.

We pin the man against a tree, but the second I saw his face, I let go of him. Nerves and joy started spreading through my veins at the same time.

My biological father.

Ansel.

Nik still kept ahold of him.

"Stop following us. Neither of us has any intention of taking Esther's bargain, and no desire to be remade a mortal being. Now, kindly piss off. We are in a hurry to help our real family." My brother spats before stomps away. An uneasy feeling rises in my chest from Nik's words. Ansel is our real family. He is our father.

"You seek the merlock orchid." Ansel said and I look at him in surprise an suspicion. Nik turns toward Ansel and looks at him suspiciously. Then he looked at me, silently asking me 'what do you make of this?' and I shrugged. I had no idea how he knew what we were doing.

"How did you know that?" Nik asked snidely and I supressed a sigh. When we get home tonight, I am going to have a talk with him about how to talk with the father you lost for a thousand years.

"I saw you carry Elijah home last night. Who do you think used to find the orchid for your mother to put Mikael to sleep? Without my help, you could search forever." My father - and man did that thought sound weird in my head but make me feel giddy at the same time - answered my brother. They stare at each other for a long moment, and Ansel smiles at both of us, turning his head from me to Nik.

Something nagged at the back of my mind. "Why did you help Esther?"

"I was in love with her." Ansel sighed, giving me a sad smile. "And I hoped everyday that one day she might leave Mikael and we could all be a proper family. I told her as such, even offered to care for the rest of your siblings as my own."

I swallowed and blinked back the unexpected tears that blurry my eyes as a result from his truthful answer and sincere gaze that watched me.

"My mother brought you back from the dead. My sense of strategy tells me that it wasn't to play a father-son game of hide and seek." Nik snapped, taking a step closer to me. He grabbed my hand and pulled me with him as he once again turns away to search for the flower.

"You can storm off in a fit of stubbornness if you like, but I suggest you do so toward the west." Ansel gestures to his right, and Nik stops for a moment, considering his options with a sigh. My twin turned his head to me, the look on his face expectant.

"What's the worst that could happen? He could actually help us cure Elijah." I said to him in a low whisper. A snort of amusement left me at the disgruntled look on my twin's face. I nudged his shoulder with mine, "At least now we know where our stubborn streak and know-it-all attitudes comes from."

Nik looked back at him, before nodding as a show of accepting the offered help. I hid a smile of joy. We we still wandering around the forest, while Ansel follows behind us. I wanted to ask him questions or hell, just talk to him about something. I could be about trees for all I care. I just want to start a conversation with him and get to know him.

"A thousand years estranged, and you choose to walk in silence?" Ansel commented after a long while of silence. I slowed down my pace and fell into step from him, ignoring the betrayed look Nik gave me over his shoulder.

"I'm not exactly sure what to say or where to start." I admitted, giving Ansel a shy smile.

"Surely you have questions for me." Ansel pressed, the look in his eyes hopeful.

My twin heaved a sigh from infront of us, "Just one, is there a way to cure Elijah without having to listen to the pointless ramblings of an old man?"

"Nik, be nice." I walked forward and cuffed him upside the head, giving him a warning look.

"I'm afraid the price of my expertise is conversation." Ansel pats Klaus affectionately on the back and slips past him so he can lead him through the woods.

"Well, I have questions. I have tons of questions." I told my father with a wide smile, excitement getting the better of me as I walked up to his side.

He gave me a soft look, one that I'd long to see from a parent my whole life long. My heart ached and the anger and hate I felt towards my mother intensified. I could have had this, both Nik and I could have. And she just took it away from us. Ansel nodded, "Go ahead."

"Was it diffucult to lead a pack all by yourself? Do you have a temper like Niklaus and I? What was the other side like? Oh, I hate the taste of olives, Esther always loved them, but what about you?" I rambled all the questions and the soft smile on my father's face widened.

"You know," Nik said, interjecting into our conversation. I rolled my eyes, wondering what he was going to say. "I used to tell myself that our real father must have had no idea we existed. Otherwise, he'd never leave us to suffer under Mikael."

I gave my father an expectant look, wanting the answer as well. "Esther forbade from seeing you. So, I waited, knowing that one day, you two would trigger your curse and need your real father. When that happened, Mikael found me first. I fought him for you."

"Yes, well, your grand declaration is just a few years too late." Nik said, his voice bitter.

"Now, you joke, but I know you've always felt a void in your life," Ansel glanced at me as he spoke. "You both have. I've watched you from beyond for centuries. You've traveled all corners of the world, seen monuments erected, feasted on the blood of the history's most extraordinary men, but you've never found true peace." I can feel through our bond that the weight of our father's words was having as much of an affect on my twin as it did on me.

Ansel looked at me, "When you were with that witch girl, you had peace upon your soul. Then when I came back and watched over you from the shadows, she was out of your life." At the mention of Davina, tears welled up in my eyes and I looked away.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn back to my twin, "The only moments of joy in your life, however fleeting, have been simple pleasures. As you climbed the Himalayas with Aleksios, as you tended to your horses. Quiet days, teaching that boy Shakespeare-"

My twin was getting overwhelmed. I could see it and feel it. "Stop." He all but snarled at Ansel.

"I watched you paint. I watched you feel your unborn daughter's kick-" At that, my twin snapped and grabs him in a choke-hold.

"Klaus!" I thundered, ripping him of our father. Bring my Hybrid eyes to the surface, I tensed my body and stood infront of our father protectively. "You can say whatever you like, but you will not hurt him."

"I said, stop!" Nik roared at him. "A millennium of observing me- were your eyes closed as I slaughtered whole villages? Fed my way through thousands of innocents? Because, let's face it- I have a tendency to play with my food." Ansel stares at him, silent, as Nik steps closer so they are nearly nose-to-nose. My body tensed, ready to restrain my brother if needed. "Have I made you proud, Father?" Tried as he might, Nik couldn't hid the fact that he was upset. I could feel his emotions that felt like a whirl wind through our twin bond. My twin angrily shoves past Ansel, my chest feeling tight at the heartbroken look on his face.

I gave Ansel an apologetic look before rushing after Nik.

"Was that really necassary?" I asked my twin, making sure to keep my voice soft.

"If you want to be a fool and fall for mother's games, be my guest, but I won't do." Nik spat, not looking at me and stomping forth in his anger.

My eyebrows rose of their own accord, "Mind your tongue with me, Nik, I am your twin and your equal and it would do you well to remember that I can kick your ass."

"So, you're choosing his side after spending five minutes with him?" My twin glared at me.

"This isn't about picking sides, Nik. This about trying to get to know the father that we should have had and who wants to know us, and if you are going to keep your knickers in a twist instead of at least trying then you can bloody well do it on your own." I snapped back at him before taking a page out of his playbook and storming away.

"What if you're wong? What if he is on Esther's side and means to harm us?" My brother asked, voice laced with fear. I stopped in my tracks, softening somewhat, knowing that as much as he's struggling against our father's presence, he desperately wants to believe that Ansel only has our best interests at heart.

I turned back to my twin, eyes and voice colder than ice. "Then I will kill him myself."

***

i'm still alive, my dearest readers. thank you all for sticking with me and this book.

i hope you liked the chapter!

-Mixie