Practical Magic

by Geek_and_Nina

Summary:

based on the movie of the same name.

“I don’t ever want to fall in love,” Josie whispered to her sister later that night, after they’d been sent up to their room. “I don’t ever want to hurt that badly.”

“I do. I want to fall in love over and over again. I want to fall in love with someone, let them go, and then move on to the next. All the love and none of the loss.” Lizzie said, following her sister out onto the balcony.

Chapter 1

The Saltzman family was cursed… from way back during the pilgrim era or something along those lines. Lizzie couldn’t quite remember. History, school, and books were never her forte. The curse itself, she would never be able to forget no matter how hard she tried. Lizzie desperately wanted to forget.

She and Josie heard the tale of the curse their whole lives. The deathwatch beetle would begin to sing and within that day, whomever the Saltzman witch loved, would die. Lizzie wanted to believe the legend of the curse wasn’t true, desperately. Still, at seven years old, her father heard the beetle and the curse quickly came to fruition. By the end of the day, Alaric moved them into the aunts’ houses. Lizzie remembered the day, 20 years later, perfectly.

“Welcome home, Josette... Elizabeth. Oh, we are going to have the best time. In this house we have cake and brownies for breakfast, there are no bedtimes, and magic runs rampant.” Aunt Freya said with a small, soft smile, attempting to cheer the girls up a bit.

Freya’s wife, Keelin, noticed how Lizzie skipped ahead after the older and blonder witch so she scooped up the much more demure, dark-haired twin. Josie buried her face in Keelin’s shoulder, noticing how their father ran ahead and up the stairs to hide and sleep. Alaric Salzman died only a few days later, although he was young and healthy. The aunts believed… due to a broken heart.

“I don’t ever want to fall in love,” Josie whispered to her sister later that night, after they’d been sent up to their room. “I don’t ever want to hurt that badly.”

“I do. I want to fall in love over and over again. I want to fall in love with someone, let them go, and then move on to the next. All the love and none of the loss.” Lizzie said, following her sister out onto the balcony.

“I wish to fall in love with someone... “ Josie picked a white flower off of the trellis and cupped it in both hands, “whose eyes are both blue and yellow.” Josie released a pillow into the wind and it floated in front of her.

“Someone who is as strong as they are small,” Josie let go of another petal and it stayed as well.

“I wish to fall in love with someone impossible; born of all three factions at the same time, whose favorite shape is the star.” Josie plucked the last petals, set them into the air with the others, and released them into the wind.

“There’s no way a person like that exists, Jo. Do you think your spell worked? We haven’t actually learned any magic yet. You wrote that spell in crayon.” Lizzie watched the petals fly away with more purpose than petals from a breeze really should have.

“I don’t know, but I really hope so. My unicorn can’t exist, so I won’t ever fall in love. Love won’t be able to hurt me, and I really hope that it never catches up to you either.” Josie reached out and grabbed Lizzie’s hands. “Do you think we could have a twin cuddle night?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Lizzie replied and squeezed her hand back before they went back to bed and she slid in beside her sister.

-----/////-----

“Come on, Jose. You know that the kids here hated us. Do you really want to grow old and raise your kids in this town where they will be mocked just for being themselves? Witch...witch...you’re a bitch.” Lizzie scoffed, one leg already slung over the balcony rail.

“That’s no reason for you to leave me. You’re my twin. You’re my other half. The closest friend I’ve got.” Josie said quietly, her voice cracking and breaking with every other word. “I don’t want you to go. You can’t love him, yet. You barely even know him.”

“That is the point! I don’t love him. There’s no danger and he can get me out of here, and that’s all I need from him.” Lizzie chuckled dropping her bag down to Conner. “Hey, throw up your knife, Con!”

 

The young man down on the ground laughed unknowingly and did as she asked. Lizzie used a glimmer of her power to guide the knife to her hand and sliced open her opposing palm. With a wince, she passed the knife to her sister.

“My blood.” She pronounced and watched as Josie sliced open her palm in turn. “Your blood.”

Lizzie extended her bloody hand out to her sister and Josie joined it with her own. “Our blood,” she said in return and smiled sadly. “Just know that I’m going to miss you terribly.”

“We are always going to be sisters, best friends, the sun and the moon to one another.” Lizzie leaned forward, kissed Josie’s cheek, and opened an umbrella before jumping down into Conner’s arms.

-----/////-----

A decade passed before Josette saw her sister again. In that time… she actually found someone. Penelope Park, a small raven-haired woman with eyes as green as grass. Josie had sworn never to love, but there was just something about the spitfire of a young witch that wormed into her life. They were married within a year and had adopted their own set of twins within another three years.

Josie wrote letters back and forth with her twin sister, telling her that she had never been happy like this before; she never dreamed of being this happy. Hadn’t allowed herself that kind of joy for fear of being hurt. Penelope had broken through all of that and half-convinced Josie the curse was really just old family folklore. Josie wanted to believe the things Penelope was saying, but her connection to magic was too strong for her to completely buy-in.

Lizzie sent a very happy letter back in reply. She had met someone as well and she swore up and down that she was in love as well. Her letter read in a quite manic way that concerned Josie a bit. Still, she knew that to be pretty typical Lizzie behavior. His name was Sebastian and he had her completely enraptured, like a compulsion or a love spell of some kind. Lizzie reminded her of the curse and warned her against getting too close, but Josie was too far gone. She loved her wife and her boys with everything she had.

Chapter 2

Pedro and PJ were five years old when Josie heard the deathwatch beetle for herself. It had been a perfect day, spent out on the beach with her wife and her sons. They had played for hours while Penelope watched them and Josie used her wife as a pillow. They had all come home sunburnt and exhausted. Pen had fallen asleep within moments of her head hitting the pillow. It was just as Josie had begun to slide in beside her that she heard the beetle for the first time.

Josie felt fear strike her like a knife to the chest. Panic ran like acid through her veins. Josie leaped from the bed and scattered herself and the sheets about the room, searching for the beetle. Some desperate corner of her mind felt as though if she killed the beetle, Penelope would live through the coming day. Josie bloodied her fingers pulling up the floorboards, ignoring Penelope’s concerned voice in the background.

No matter how many floorboards Josie pulled up, there was no beetle to be found. The sound didn’t seem to come from any particular direction. It was above her, below her, behind her, and above her at the same time. Josie cried desperately before realizing that she could no longer hear Penelope behind her. Dark hair splayed out o what was left of the hardwood flooring and she wasn’t moving.

-----////-----

“Bring her back! Freya! Keelin! Bring her back to me!” Josie carried her wife over her shoulder and laid her out on the kitchen table.

Footfalls thumped down the staircase as the aunts wrapped and tied their robes about their waists. Keelin braced Josie beneath her arms as Freya choked back a sob at the sight of Penelope, dead on the table.

“You know we can’t do that, love. I am so, so, sorry.” Freya said as tears trailed down her cheeks. She carefully folded Penelope’s arms across her chest.

“Even if we did, she wouldn’t be the same person. She wouldn’t be your Penelope anymore. Not the same woman whom you married. Not the woman you adopted your children with. Not the woman you love. It wouldn’t be worth it.” Keelin explained as Josie sobbed into her shoulder. Her heart was breaking for her niece.

“So, you can do it. You just won’t.” Josie said, her words caught like burrs inside of her raw throat. “I don’t care about how she comes back, so long as I can see her eyes again and tell her eyes again and tell her that I love her.”

“I am sorry, Josie, but your wife is gone. We can not and will not bring her back. She deserves to be set to peace as all witches ought to be.” Keelin said quietly and Freya voiced her agreement.

“Go home and be with your children. You need them just as much as they are about to need you. Go home and we will take care of the rest.” Freya promised her.

 

-----////-----

By the end of the next day, Josie and her twins had moved in with the aunts as well. The widowed witch was filled with a sense of deja vu and dread. Much like her father before her, Josiepassed her family by and headed into her room to bury herself into her bed to cry herself out. She knew Keelin and Freya would be right behind; picking her sons up, feeding them dessert for breakfast, and teaching them about magic.

Josie spent a week hiding from the world in that bed; simultaneously fighting to keep herself from meeting the same end as her father and thinking that maybe he’d had the right idea.

“Mama, it’s time to get up. We got to go to school.” Pedro crawled up the bed to lay face to face with her, gently shaking her shoulder to wake her up. “I don’t really wanna go, but you said we had to, remember?”

“We need you to be our Mama, Mama.” PJ added.

“Oh, my sweet boys.” Josie finally sat up and yanked them into the bed, rolling over and tickling them along their ribcages. “If you’re going to school, I’m going to need you to get changed and to brush your little teefers.”

 

She sent them on their way and stared back up at the ceiling. Josie gazed at her hand sadly. She trailed one finger-tip along the scar across her palm. “Your blood. My blood. Our blood. I need you, Liz. I can’t get through this without you.” She said quietly.

-----//////------

Lizzie didn’t understand why she was suddenly so fascinated by the scar that still decorated the palm of her hand. Somehow, though their twin bond, or their magic, she knew that Josie needed her. Sebastian grabbed her hand out of the air and kissed her palm. Lizzie almost gagged as his tongue dragged along the extra-sensitive scar tissue. She excused herself to the bathroom, toting his half-empty bottle of red along with her, drinking deeply from it as she did so.

Once safely shut up in the bathroom, Lizzie dipped deep into her pocket, retrieving a special mixture of herbs she had made and blessed. Vervain and belladonna; the vervain to render the vampire Sebastian vulnerable and the belladonna to make him sleep. She added several drops of the tincture to the wine and mixed it. When Lizzie flushed, she made a show of washing her hands, and jumped into the bed beside him; putting the bottle back into Sebastian’s hands.

He drank deeply as well, finishing it all, made a few more lazy passes at Lizzie before promptly falling asleep. She waited about thirty more minutes, lifted his arm and let it fall limply back to the bed. Lizzie rolled her eyes, smiled to herself, and stole his keys on her way out. She just wished she could shake the sound of his whistling out of her ears.

Josie woke up the next morning to a long and delicate finger tracing down her nose. She sensed something familiar, a nostalgic sort of presence. Her bleary eyes forced their way open and met a pair that she knew better than any other. Josie felt her heart crack wide open as she rolled over to bury her face in her sister’s shoulder. She began to openly sob for Penelope for the first time since the day her wife died.

Lizzie’s heart ached for her sister. She pulled the other woman into her arms and hugged her tightly. Lizzie felt nauseous from even the amount of small pain that traveled through their connection. She couldn’t imagine the absolute misery her sister was in. Having left her other half behind for so long, Lizzie swore to be there for her from now on, she really did want to be better after a life of having put herself first for so long.

Once Josie was cried out and talked out, the twins settled in for a very much overdue catch-up. For the first tie since Penelope’s death, Josette eventually found herself laughing. They talked all day, took a long nap, then talked through the night as well. By the time they were through, Lizzie had fallen half in love with Penelope and half thought she was Satan herself incarnate. Josie ended up quite certain that she absolutely despisedSebastian.

When Josie woke up the next morning, for once she felt invigorated. She got up, showered, ate and left the house. She walked down the street with her head held high. The townsfolk, her friends and neighbors since she was a child nearly all ignored her. Josie wished she could feel as invisible now as she once had. Now she walked tall and pretended not to hear the whispers.

Penelope had been her connection to everyone, including the storefront on main street that she’d left to her wife. Josie started to move her small homemade soaps, shampoos, and herbal remedies shop in that very day. The aunts helped her to move the boxes in and to set up the contents on the shelves and displays. Jeering voices alerted Josie to the arrival of her sister and her sons. She tolled her eyes and groaned.

“Witch! Witch! You’re a bitch! Witch! Witch! You’re a bitch!” she could hear being called down the sidewalk as she emerged from her shop.

“I would have thought you little shits would come up with something more original by now.” Lizzie scoffed, ushering Pedro and PJ in and shutting everyone else out. “Brings back memories, doesn’t it, Jo?”

Lizzie knelt down beside her nephews, plucked an unopened bud and held it out in front of them. “It gets easier to ignore them as you learn how to do things like this.” she pushed her will into the plant, encouraging it to bloom.

Pedro and PJ laughed and clapped. Lizzie tucked the flower behind Pedro’s ear. She used the same trick on a matching flower for his twin. She could also feel Josie’s glare burning into the back of her head. Lizzie stood, brushed her hands off on her shorts to smirk at her sister. Her shrug was plainly a challenge to Josie.

She laughed it off and tucked her bags beneath her arm on her way home, their faces sad and angry. Pedro turned on his heel to point at the freckle-faced blonde boy who had been leading the mocking. “I hope you chicken pox.” his voice held a certain amount of force that surprised Josie. She had a feeling the other boy would be showing symptoms by the end of the day.

Lizzie laughed and put him up on her shoulders. Josie matched her actions with a laughing PJ. They raced to the house, ignoring their neighbors and reveling in one another’s company. Josie knew Lizzie would be leaving soon to go back to Sebastian. Josie hated it, but she held onto every moment with her twin; storing them up in her heart for whenever they were apart.

Two weeks to the very first night after Lizzie had gone, Josie sat down at her desk and began to pen her first letter to her sister. She searched her desk and her pockets without finding matches or a lighter. On a whim, for the first time since Penelope’s death, Josie leaned forward to blow on the candle, as though putting it out. The flame flickered to life at the light touch of her power. Josie smiled to herself and used the candle to warm the wax needed to seal the envelope.

She pulled on a sweater and went outside to drop the envelope off in the mailbox. Josie couldn’t help but stare up at the man for a moment, getting lost in the memory of the spell she’d cast as a little girl. She was glad it hadn’t worked. If it had, Josie wouldn’t have gotten the time with Penelope she had been gifted. She wouldn’t have her sons. She doubted how well she would have held up at all through her early adult years without the other woman in her life.

Josie kissed the now dried seal and raised the flag on the mailbox. As the lid shut, she felt a jolt of electricity up the palm of her hand and up through her arm. Whatever might have been going on, it wasn’t good. Josie ran as quickly as she could back up the long drive and into the house where she could already hear the phone ringing. She pushed past her aunts to answer it.

“Lizzie… where are you? I’m coming to get you.” Josie wrote down the answer and hung up. “Aunties, I need you to watch the boys. Take them with you to the coven meeting; no dancing naked around the fire circle and nothing but simple nature-based magic. I remember what goes on at these things. My sister needs me. Tell them I love them.”

Josie was out of the door before they could respond, an umbrella and dried cat’s brush in hand… the makings of a particularly speedy and rather draining flight spell. The aunts were concerned, but couldn’t help their smile. Freya had once really loved that conjuration and Keelin detected pride in her wife’s eyes. Keelin could only assume her own were matching.

Chapter 3

"Lizzie... where are you? I'm coming to get you." Josie wrote down the answer and hung up. "Aunties, I need you to watch the boys. Take them with you to the coven meeting; no dancing naked around the fire circle and nothing but simple nature-based magic. I remember what goes on at these things. My sister needs me. Tell them I love them."

Josie was out of the door before they could respond, an umbrella and dried cat's brush in hand... the makings of a particularly speedy and rather draining flight spell. The aunts were concerned, but couldn't help their smile. Freya had once really loved that conjuration and Keelin detected pride in her wife's eyes. Keelin could only assume her own were matching.

-----/////-----

Josie very nearly lost her footing as she landed on the tar pavement and stumbled to a stop. The motel had way too many stairs for her poor legs after having flown so far. Fury and panic kept her moving. After what felt like an eternity of looking for the correct room number, Josie crept in as quietly as possible.

Her sister was crumpled up in the floor, her knees pulled up to her chest, a small cut on her cheek beginning to bloom purple across her jaw. "Lizzie... Lizzie, come on, sweet girl. I've got you. We need to get you out of here." Josie rushed around the room picking up all of the things that looked to be Lizzie's, working around the unconscious vampire on the bed. With everything stuffed into one bag, Josie helped the blonde to her feet and started to pull her out of the room.

Lizzie stumbled out behind Josie almost blindly, tears streaming down her face. "It's going to be okay, Liz. We're going to be just fine." She did her best to be comforting when all Josie really wanted was to turn around and burn down the motel with Sebastian still inside.

"I have his keys. Get in the car." Josie opened the door and slid in. She started it and held out a hand to Lizzie. "We'll get home and patch you up. Everything will be alright."

"I can't. I have to go back. Dad's ring. It's on the nightstand. We can't leave it." Lizzie shook off Josie's hand and ran back up to the hotel room. She was halfway back down yelling, "I've got it." When Sebastian appeared behind her, his fangs elongated, his eyes red.

"You sure do, pretty lady, but now I've got you." Sebastian said with a dark laugh as he viciously grabbed Lizzie. "You must be the elder sister. Get in and start the car before I rip out Elizabeth's pretty little throat."

Josie clenched her fists, halfway in and out of the car. She wasn't sure if a spell would affect Sebastian before more quickly than he would be able to hurt Lizzie. After a moment's hesitation and clenching her fists so tightly that she broke the skin; Josie did as she was told. All she wanted in the world once more, was to burn something. Josie felt completely powerless.

Sebastian swaggered along behind Lizzie, plainly still drunk, with one hand holding the neck of this bottle of wine and the other around the neck of Lizzie Saltzman. "I will do whatever you want, just let go of my sister." Josie said in a half-growl, sliding into the driver's seat. Sebastian shoved Lizzie into the back bench seat and followed shortly after her, licking his lips as though she were dinner.

"Not just yet. I don't know where we're going, but we're getting there fast. If I can't have you, Elizabeth," he licked along her carotid artery. "No one can. I've always had a thing about sisters. One of the very few things I haven't tried in my long, long life."

"Start driving, Josette. Don't stop here, this will help, with the nerves." Sebastian passed the bottle to Josie and went back to sniffing at Lizzie's neck.

She pretended to take a long drink and set the bottle between her feet. Josie met Lizzie's eyes in the rearview mirror. Her eyes communicated everything she needed to know. Josie reached back as subtly as possible while Sebastian played idly with his daylight ring. Lizzie took the small plastic baggie of herbs and put them into Josie's hand.

Sebastian had been singing quietly to himself as they drove. "You may not want to live by my side forever in undeath, but I want everyone to know that you're mine." He flicked his lighter and held the flame up to his daylight ring. "This will do as well as anything else."

Josie used the opportunity to dump the entirety of the contents in the bottle. She swirled it once in her hand, not realizing that it continued to mix once she set it back down. "No! Don't you even think about it.' Josie growled and used her power to toss the lighter out of the window without actually moving. "Why don't you just drink about it until you come to your senses."

"I have been trying to do that for an awfully long time... but it would be a crime to let this bottle go to waste." Sebastian was furious one moment, then completely docile again the next. He drank the rest of the bottle in one go, red liquid running down his chin resembling blood too much for her liking.

Lizzie met Josie's eyes again and shrugged at the lack of effect. Lizzie had told her sister of this trick to get her boyfriend to sleep and get off of her for a while. Josie wondered if he might have built up a tolerance of some variety. Her heart had crawled up from her chest into her mouth, which had gone dry and her palms were sweaty. Lizzie could only watch them both with panic in her eyes.

Chapter 4

"Pullover. I need to take a piss." Sebastian demanded suddenly. "Now."

As soon as she found a suitably secluded area, Josie did as she was told. She gnawed at her bottom lip anxiously, trying to think of what could be done to turn the situation in her favor. Sebastian seemed to move more lethargically than with his usual drunken swagger. She could see the silhouette of him urinating, then turning to head back, his gait even more unsteady. Within the next two steps, he was falling forward onto his face.

Josie jumped out of the car, growling at her sister to stay put. There was scrap wood poking out the top of the nearby dumpster and she dragged it out, breaking a smaller piece over her knee into a makeshift stake. Josie dragged Sebastian's head up by the hair once and bashed it three times into the pavement below before driving the stake through his back into his heart. Panting, she returned to the car and sat down in the driver's seat, shaking. Lizzie reached forward and held her hand with a strong squeeze.

"We have to take care of the body, Jo. It's just laying out there like a statue." Lizzie said after they'd been sitting together for a good long while processing. "Come on, we have to keep moving."

Lizzie slid out of the car and Josie followed slowly. She was unsure of herself and had never taken a life before, if an evil, rotten to the core vampire counted as a life. Josie didn't know. She just knew, as always, that she would do whatever it took to protect her sister. Lizzie and her sons were the most important people in the world to her.

Together, they lugged Sebastian's corpse into the trunk of the car and started driving back home. The vast majority of their drive was spent bickering about what they ought to do with the body once they arrived back at the Mikaelson house. Lizzie was for burning the body on the beach. Josie voted on burying him in the backyard where they could keep an eye on the grave. They decided, given Josie did the murdering, she got to handle the body.

Lizzie and Josie dragged Sebastian into the Mikaelson home as the spring rains began to drizzle down, quickly becoming a torrent. Together, they managed to haul him up onto the kitchen table. He was cold to the touch, with the texture of stone, and skin just as grey.

"The aunts' grimoires! When Penelope died, I tried to convince them to bring her back for me. Freya said that they could, but wouldn't. She would have come back, but not as the woman I loved. When it comes to Sebastian... I don't think that will be an issue. He never had much of a personality anyway." Josie began searching through the shelves and cabinets until she found the one she wanted.

Lizzie choked on a laugh and began gathering the supplies Josie called out for. Something white to draw with, a bundle of lavender, two long needles to be inserted into the eyes. Lizzie realized that they didn't have nearly enough salt for the arcane sigil to be drawn on the chest, and passed Josie a can of spray whipped cream after taste testing it with a mouthful for herself. Josie did the same and then began to draw on Sebastian's chest with the whipped cream. Once finished, Josie began to chant as she inserted the long needles through each iris individually.

"I'm not strong enough, Lizzie. Take my hand and let me channel you. Super twin magic powers and all, right?" Josie held out her scarred hand until Lizzie matched it with her own. Power flooded into her from her sister and she channeled it into her spell. The candles in the room all sparked to life as Josie's hair began to blow in the magical wind behind her. It had been years since either one of them had worked any real spells. Lizzie had forgotten what this kind of power moving through her felt like.

Josie slit her other wrist and allowed the blood to fall into Sebastian's mouth, completing the spell. Color flooded back into his face, his eyes red and the veins across his cheekbones turned black.

"Eli... Elizabeth, you brought me back." Sebastian said in a hoarse voice and a greasy smile. He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. "I knew that you loved me. We are meant for one another."

"This was a mistake. We should have just burnt him to ashes when we had the chance. He doesn't deserve to live. He doesn't get to live." Lizzie snapped the nearest broom in half and drove it through his chest, killing him once more.

"Elizabeth? All of that work for you to just decide he needed to die again. I am exhausted and now we have to go out there and bury this dirtbag. We can't burn him in this rain and I don't want there to be a body on the kitchen counter when the kids and the aunts come home." Josie traded Lizzie's broken broom for a shovel.

The siblings spent the rest of their night out in the rain digging a grave for the staked vampire. There was no room left for argument while they were both miserable and working out there together. Josie and Lizzie patted the mud down on the grave, finally finished with their terrible work. Lizzie shoved the long-handled shovel down into the ground beside the grave, rainwater dripping from the blonde strands plastered to her head. She drew Josie's attention once more when she groaned loudly.

"Liz, what is it?" Josie asked and groaned as well when she saw the toes of Sebastian's boots poking up from the ground.

"We can finish this in the morning. We need to get dry, clean, and warm or we'll probably get sick. I've hit my limit and I still want to clean that up as well." Josie's thumb brushed across the bruise on Lizzie's face.

"I hope that it scars. These are things that I have to remember and learn from." Lizzie patted her sister's hand away.

"You don't deserve to have to bear any mark he left upon you for the rest of your life, Elizabeth Saltzman. The ones he has left on our hearts and minds will be heavy enough." the twins left their soaked clothes in the mudroom. Josie grabbed clothes from the dryer, the softest pajamas she could find, for each of them. They dressed and Lizzie sat still for once while Josie applied on of her homemade creams on the injury.

"Twin cuddle night? If we've ever needed to reinstitute those, then tonight's the night. You let that soak in and I'll shower first. It's stupid, but could you watch the door while I'm in there? I still have this sick feeling of dread. Like I'm missing something." Josie blushed, kind of embarrassed by the request.

"Of course.” Lizzie pulled her sister close and hugged her so tightly Josie worried about her ribcage. "Thank you, Josie, for everything. You didn't have to come to my rescue."

"Come on, you know that I did."

-----/////-----

"Lizzie! Lizzieeeee!" Josie's shouts from downstairs woke her out of a dead sleep. She pulled her houseshoes on and ran to find her sister as quickly as possible.

"What, Jo? What's wrong?!" Lizzie slid to a stop at the kitchen window where Josie was visibly pale and sick looking. She followed her sister's line of sight out to the gazebo, which while white and perfect the day before was now crawling with roses.

"The kids will be home with the aunties any moment now. Start chopping those damn bushes out while I stall them." Josie instructed, thrusting a set of shears towards her sister and rushing out of the front door.

"Mama! Mama!" PJ and Pedro rushed to Josie and jumped into her arms. They nearly bowled her over and Josie realized she wouldn't be able to let them keep that up for much longer. "We danced around the fire in our undershorts and stayed up way past our bedtimes."

Her boys started talking very quickly over one another, clearly very excited. At one time they gave her the full run-down of their time away. PJ plucked a bud off of one of the nearby plants. "We learned Aunt Lizzie's trick!" Pedro explained as PJ, with an expression of deep effort and focus made the bud bloom into a flower.

"Where is she? I want to show her." PJ asked, reaching up to tuck the flower behind his mother's ear.

"I left her inside. I wanted to come and get all of the good hugs before you started to give them all away. Go on and find her. I'll help the aunts with the rest of the bags." Josie kissed her sons' respective foreheads then sent them into the house, hoping Lizzie had done as she was told.

"Aunt Lizzie, come and look! I learned your trick!" Josie could hear them from outside. She smiled quietly to herself with affection for her boys. Josie hadn't quite known what she had set upon her sister. "So... you have my sons working spells now?"

"They begged and begged until my lovely wife's poor heart couldn't bear to say no any longer. With all of that beautiful magic surrounding them, could you blame them for wanting to know so badly? You decided to send them along. This is their family's history, their family's family that they finally got to meet." Keelin chuckled but her eyes were quite serious, though as a werewolf she had married into the tradition and lifestyle.

"I don't blame them, I just think Aunt Freya was waiting for any possible excuse. I don't mind anymore. It was about time I started to embrace the family's legacy again." Josie gestured to the plants lining the sidewalk around them and they all slowly grew into full bloom.

"Was that you, Jo!? It certainly wasn't me and your boys aren't nearly that powerful yet. Unless they somehow figured out how to channel one another. Elizabeth has never had that kind of control, though the two you did learn how to channel one another early on." Freya began to ramble as she thought out loud until Keelin put a hand on her shoulder to call her to a halt.

"It was Josie, Freya. I've convinced her to forgive you for teaching the boys magic without permission. She's decided to take up casting again." Keelin said, wrapping an arm around her wife's shoulders and kissing her cheek.

The aunts followed Josie inside, the brunette witch carrying her sons' bags over her shoulders. She could practically feel the fury radiating off of Keelin when she saw the mostly healed injury on Lizzie's face. "Whoever did this to you will get the justice they deserve," Freya said in a pained tone. She put a hand on Keelin's shoulder and squeezed, reassuring her and reminding her to stay in control. Freya let her go and swiped a thumb along with Lizzie's injury, healing it completely.

Lizzie met Josie's eyes and both women stifled a laugh. Josie had voted for telling Freya and Keelin about how they had killed and buried Sebastian, but Lizzie didn't want them to know what had happened to her. A picture of the girls fell off of the wall as soon as their eyes met and Lizzie jumped about a foot away Josie attempted to feign a cough to distract from the awkward moment. Keelin stepped forward and pulled Lizzie into a tight hug.

"It seems that we all need to catch up a bit, don't we. We've missed something while we were gone. Something big. I can feel it in the air around me." Freya said, her voice tight and pained.

The shop had been set up and operational for the past two weeks. Lizzie was technically an employee there, but while Josie worked behind the desk, her sister sat in the window smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. She swore that they were the final bad habit she would holdover from her time with Sebastian. Josie gave her some slack on them so long as she didn't smoke around the boys. The pass wasn't going to last for long, though.

"Ms. Josie, the phone's ringing. It's the moms' phone tree thing again. You have that meeting tonight, don't forget." Maya called from the back of the shop where she was taking inventory. Lizzie found her voice to be surprisingly apologetic, given that what she was talking about didn't sound that bad.
Lizzie turned to one of the other employees. "What the hell is all of that?" she gestured to Josie groaning as she listened to the pre-recorded message over the phone. She looked as though it physically pained her.

"The parent's booster club at the boys' school. They have a phone tree and the mom at the top of the tree is supposed to rotate once a month between each parent. Despite that, Josie has never once been chosen. They're boxing her out. We aren't sure if it's because of the gay thing or the witch thing." MG explained and looked up at the pride flag flying just outside of the window.

Lizzie sneered at the thought of someone being needlessly cruel to her sister. She was the only one allowed to bully Josie. Lizzie watched her sister on the phone, then as she packed up her belongings to head out; instructing MG to mind the store. She counted to forty-five inside of her mind then headed out to follow Josie from a distance.

She peeked in through the classroom door and simply watched the meeting for a while. Her sister looked miserable, her hair in a loose and messy ponytail. Her face was propped up on one hand and she was rolling her eyes hard about every thirty seconds. In one of her more reckless moments, Lizzie decided that Josie needed her sister at her side and flounced into the room, her outer shirt now tied around her waist to reveal her crop-top and a hint of the snake tattoo that wound about her waist.

"Hi, everyone, sorry. I'm Josie's sister, Lizzie Saltzman. Thought I would sneak in to surprise her!" she began to cross the room, making her way to Josie's side. The other parents all began to stage whisper about her history in the town, her clothes, her reputation, and her tattoo in particular. "That's right, ladies, gentlemen... I doubt anyone here is accepting enough to identify as anything else. It's me, ya girl. Hide your husbands! Hide your wives!"

Lizzie sashayed her hips while everyone watched, completely scandalized by her behavior. Josie covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. Lizzie grinned to herself, her work complete. She took a seat close to her sister and grabbed the free hand, not taking notes. Lizzie couldn't believe her sister was taking notes.

"Okay then, back to our regularly scheduled programming,” the meeting leader, whom Lizzie mentally named ‘Karen’, cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "On to the top of the phone tree."

Lizzie wiggled her nose with a grin and lounged back in her chair. ‘Karen’flipped through the pages with a look of near panic on her face. "I uh, there must be some mistake," she muttered beneath her breath. "The next head of the parent phone tree will be... Miss. Josie Park-Saltzman."

The whispers started back up almost immediately, the group not pleased. Josie perked up as well, her eyes wide and astonished. "That wasn't me." she whispered to Lizzie.

"I know. That's because it was me. I thought these douche canoes needed a lesson in humility. How do you think they would feel if they knew their precious Penelope Park was just as much a witch as we are?"

"They would probably just hate me even more." Josie scoffed but found herself even more grateful for her sister than usual. No one made her laugh like Lizzie.

The pair linked arms as they left the school.

Chapter 5

------/////------

Josie had been dreaming of her late wife. Penelope just found the small piece of paper, colored and scrawled across in crayon. The list was of traits a very young Josie had desired in a soulmate, an impossible combination, to keep her from falling in love. They manifested in front of the pair as Penelope read them aloud. Slowly, as she finished the spell before Josie's dream eyes, a figure began to manifest. She had long, wavy copper hair and was a couple of inches shorter than Josie. Josie couldn't yet see her face but knew that she was beautiful.

Just as the rest of her features were about to fill in, Josie felt the land of the awake pulling her back up. Her heart ached at the loss of the dream. She could have slapped Lizzie for waking her up. Josie had a distinct feeling her dream hadn't been a typical dream. Not knowing what that woman's face looked like was going to haunt her.

"Liz, what time is it?" Josie asked, her voice hoarse and sleepy. She rubbed at her eyes; her body protesting being awake at all.

"It's midnight... and you know what that means!" Lizzie said with a bright smile in those mischievous eyes. Josie felt herself waking up in response; feeling an equal amount of excitement flooding her system.

"Midnight margaritas!" Josie called, before Lizzie hushed her and reminded her that the boys were still asleep.

Josie giggled, whipped the blankets off herself, and slid into the houseshoes at her nightstand. She scampered after her sister, beginning to giggle as though they were getting away with something. Lizzie tugged on her arm so hard she almost knocked them both down the stairs. They found the aunts in the kitchen, blending together ingredients in the dance-y, happy manner of every full moon. The twins grabbed a glass each and began to dance along with them.

-

Freya poured all four women a margarita, kissing her wife slowly and deeply as she put the drink in her hand. The four women sang and danced through the night, releasing their inhibitions, their pain, and all of the horrible things the past years had brought. Josie sang, loudly and danced, wildly. Any time she felt her glass beginning to empty, Lizzie was right there to fill it again. Josie couldn't remember the last time she'd had this kind of fun.

The aunts and the older set of twins sat around the table and continued to drink their fill. At some point, Keelin switched them all from margaritas to red wine and they gathered around the dining room table.

"Oh, my Goddess. Your sister was so uptight I had to use molasses to bind the spell I used for Josie to finally give in to Penelope's flirtations." Freya laughed loud and brightly. Josie found herself blushing darkly as Lizzie howled with laughter.

"At least Pen didn't decide to murder me when we first started dating and I broke up with her repeatedly ." Josie choked on laughter even though she had beaten herself up over those breakups. It was good to laugh.

"What can I say? I'm too awesome to live without." Lizzie laughed, her expression lighter than Josie or the aunts had seen in a long while.

"I am not going to argue with any of that." Freya toasted to Lizzie's statement as Keelin tapped the bottle against her wife's glass.

"Wait, Aunt Freya... where did you get this bottle of wine?" Lizzie asked, her voice suddenly sober and serious once more.

"I didn't buy it, I thought one of you girls had. Why do you ask? What's wrong with it?" Freya's voice changed in turn. Her eyes flitted from Keelin's to Lizzie's to Josie's in search of an answer. She set the glass down and took the bottle from Keelin.

"Is that...?" Josie looked to Lizzie, swallowing hard and her mouth going dry. The door behind them slammed closed and all four women felt a chill run up and down their spines. Josie whipped the bottle off of the table and hurriedly poured it down the drain.

"Yeah, I'm going to go check on the rose bed." Lizzie's voice was panicked and she nearly tripped over her own feet.

"Keelin, fetch me the hanging rope from my drawer, please." Freya began rifling through her cabinet of oils, potions, and ointments. "Wolfsbane and vervain tincture."

"Here, love." Keelin put the long piece of rope into her wife's hands and watched as she cut it in half. Putting it down, Freya emptied the tincture into her binds, rubbed them together and began to rub the oils into the rope, all while chanting words of protection.

"Take these up to the boys." Freya cut the rope in half. "Tie one around their left hands . Tell them not to take them off ever until they have my say so."

Lizzie ran back in then. "The broom I set up in the gazebo has fallen and the entire structure is covered in roses. Sebastian's here and I think he's pissed."

Upon further inspection, Josie could see that her sister was covered in scrapes and scratches from the thorns. She groaned, torn between her fury and her fear. All of those feelings were overshadowed by her need to reassure her sister.

"Don't worry, Lizzie. We can take care of this. The three of us are some of the most powerful witches in the world. A Mikaelson and the Saltzman twins. She isn't blood family, but we were trained by Freya Mikaelson, the most badass witch ever . Come on." Josie pulled her sister into her side.

-----/////-----

The next morning, Josette Saltzman awoke early to the sounds of her blissfully unaware children very loudly and very poorly playing the kazoo outside of her bedroom door. She decided then and there to get her hands on the kazoos and then hide them until her sons reached their twenties. Lizzie met her halfway down the stairs with a cup of coffee. Josie was certain she had never loved her sister more than at that moment. The aunts had apparently either risen even earlier or never gone to bed, breakfast was ready on the table.

Pedro was sitting across the kitchen island, still merrily playing whatever tune was running through his head. Josie held her hand out, palm out, narrowed her eyes and cleared her throat at her son. It was quite clear she was not amused. Pedro wrinkled his nose but did as his mother asked nonetheless. Josie smiled to herself and touched the object in the pocket of her cardigan. One down and one to go.

Lizzie sat up on one of the stools at the kitchen island, her knees pulled up to her chest, expression morose as she smoked and ate her breakfast. Josie passed by her and pulled the cigarette from between her sister's fingers and threw it into the trash can. "Not around the kids." She sat down beside her sister and drank her coffee quietly.

"When you said that we had this, that we could handle whatever new form of torture Sebastian is putting us through turns out to be... you meant that?" Lizzie asked, looking up into Josie's eyes from where she was using her arms as a pillow.

"Of course I did. We're the Saltzman twins. We can do anything, in this whole crazy world when we're together. The two of us and the boys. We're all we need." Josie said, her voice tight and pained.

"So, what are you going to do with your weekend, Jo?" Lizzie asked, still not sitting up. "I was thinking of working with the little dudes on some of the smaller, more fun spells. We haven't spent nearly enough time together since I got home. Quality time with their favorite aunt and all."

"I'm going to go and murder a whole bunch of beautiful roses. They hurt you and that isn't something I'm willing to stand for. You're my favorite person in the whole world, at least out of the adults." Josie replied with a ferocious grin.

She leaned down and kissed her twin sister's temple reverently. Josie walked out into the backyard/garden area and sent her sons inside to see their aunt for lessons. She sent a wink at her own Aunt Freya, narrowed her eyes at the rosebush, and spoke in the low and focused voice she reserved for spell casting. "Ignalusa."

The base of the rose bush went up into flames with a whoosh. It died down almost immediately but Josie got the satisfaction of a good spell cast and a good fire set. Josie couldn't help but smile at her work as Freya and Keelin set out for their Saturday morning walk around town.

"I should have known that my family home would still be a hothouse for witches. The supernatural has always been drawn to this place. Bad break-up?" A young woman leaned against the gate with a soft smile and sparkly eyes. Her hair shown in the morning sun like a new penny.

"Something like that. My sister's bad break-up. I would burn him to the ground like this if I could. A bastard like him deserves whatever he gets." Josie looked much too happy for someone who was burning plants in her pajamas.

"Your sister... is Elizabeth Saltzman, right?" the beautiful stranger asked, piquing Josie's suspicion.

"Yes, and you are?" Josie crossed her arms to stare the girl down. She didn't know where all of the questions were coming from.

"I am Hope Marshall-Mikaelson, United States Marshal. Sorry, I should have led with that. Is your sister Elizabeth around? I have some questions for her." Hope finished her introduction. Instead of doing what she was supposed to, Hope realized she would rather stay here and keep talking to Josie Saltzman.

"Mikaelson? Are you related to my aunt, Freya?" Josie asked. Hope turned back to look at her. Her eyes were pained and her smile was sad.

"She's my aunt as well. My late father's sister. I've been living with my other aunt, Rebekah, in Virginia. Freya and I haven't seen one another since I was fourteen." Hope explained. "May I come inside and speak to your sister?"

"Of course... I just want you to know that I'm adopted, in case you were wondering. The two of us aren't blood relatives." Josie called after Hope as the other woman headed to the greenhouse.

She watched the other woman go, and was happy to just sit back, imagining all of the unlikely possibilities. Josie tried to look through the glass for her sister and the Marshal but was distracted by the face she saw over her shoulder. Sebastian... smiling and waving in the distance.

Josie choked, unsure of whether to throw magic behind herself, at the glass in front of her, to scream, or to run for it. Her breath came shakily, but she could see Lizzie through the glass still talking with the Marshal. Whatever attempts at flirtation she was making were having no effect. Hope seemed ready to run. If Josie weren't still so thrown, she would have laughed.

Finally, Hope seemed to finish her line of questioning and left. She was caught in the doorway and again on the back-porch by Pedro and PJ. Josie sat back and watched as the boys bombarded her with questions. She did laugh then, deciding to put the Sebastian matter away for another time. "Boys! Give the Marshal a break. Come on over here." They laughed and ran to her side.

"Ms.Saltzman, it was nice to meet you." Hope extended her hand to shake Josie's. "Your kids are sweet and very, very curious."

"They are the light of my life. The best of my late wife and myself. Though... I'm sure you read all of that in my file, didn't you?" Josie asked, gesturing to the stacks of files poking out of the top of Hope's bag.

"I had all of the pieces, but seeing them put together paints a much better picture. Is it okay if I come back later and get the rest of the story from your side?" Hope asked.

"Of course. We are having a family breakfast tomorrow morning. If you stop by early enough, there might be a couple of pancakes in it for you, and please, call me Josie." She smiled awkwardly, her heart raced and Josie gnawed on her lower lip. She had meant to lie and found herself unable to. There was something about those blue eyes that caused her heart to do somersaults.

"Just so long as you call me 'Hope' outside of the professional setting... Josie." she replied, a soft smile on her face. There was something hesitant in her speech and mannerisms that left Josie wanting to take care of her.

As soon as Hope was out of sight, Josie rushed inside to talk with her sister. "Lizzie, what the hell just happened?" Her twin was burying her face in her hands and muttering to herself.

"I think that very beautiful Marshal girl just implied that the two of us committed a murder." Lizzie seemed completely dumbstruck. Her eyes were wide, like a deer caught in the headlights.

"We did commit a murder, Lizzie. It was mostly me, but you were there. Then I brought him back from the dead and I killed him again. Now he's haunting us from beyond the grave." Josie reminded her of their situation.

"I know all of that. I also know that I really don't want either of us to get arrested. Especially you, what with the little P's and all." Lizzie's voice was soft and pained. "All of this is my fault. I'm so sorry."

"I killed him so this is all really on me. I'm a double murderess now." Josie chuckled, tilting her sister's chin up to meet her eyes. "Plus, I think there is another issue we need to be concerned with. I can't lie to Hope the Marshal. I don't know why. I just go all melty and awkward."

"Yeah, that's just what happens every time you are around a beautiful woman, Josette. I'm kind of used to that out of you." Lizzie laughed. "You aren't the smoothest witch around."

"You aren't funny, Lizzie. I literally can't lie to her. I tried and all of the wrong words came out. It didn't work." Josie said, her voice deadly serious. "She's gorgeous, but that isn't the reason I can't lie to her. Whatever it is borders on vampiric compulsion. I can't ."

"Well, that's deeply concerning." Lizzie groaned, her disbelief obvious on her face. "I am going to go meditate until I have processed everything that just happened. It might be several years before I come back. Don't wait up."

"Hey, Liz. Look at me." Josie caught her twin before she could leave. "My blood. Your blood. Our blood."

Josie grabbed her sister's hand and pressed their scars together. "Together we can do anything. Survive anything. So long as we have one another."

"You keep telling me that and I am not sure I believe it anymore. No matter how much I want to." Lizzie attempted and failed at a smile. It ended up looking more like a grimoire.

"Well... one way or another I will convince you. That Marshal really was absolutely gorgeous. It's going to be interesting to see how my interview with her goes tomorrow." Josie scoffed, though she was somewhat looking forward to seeing Hope Mikaelson again.

"Well, no matter whether you can lie to her or not. Please don't tell her that you murdered Sebastian. Remember the story. Tell it back to me." Lizzie turned back and crossed her arms over her chest.

Josie groaned, then sat across from her sister to regurgitate all the words.

Chapter 6

Josie was up even earlier the next morning cooking pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Her sister was off with the boys making some kind of ‘special syrup’ as she wondered how she ought to react around them if Marshal Hope Mikaelson were to show up during breakfast. Josie was terrified by the prospect and at the same time, she desperately wanted it to happen. She couldn’t wait to see those blue eyes again.

-----/////-----

“So, this is what’s going to tell you if this copper is your mother’s soulmate or not?” Lizzie asked, pinned between her nephews who stood on a stool and a step-ladder respectively as they mixed the ingredients with the molasses. “Wolfsbane?!” She asked in a tone of adamant surprise.

“Hope is a United States Marshal!” Pedro corrected. “Their badge is in the shape of a star and her eyes are blue.”

“If she’s a werewolf, then her blue eyes can turn yellow, just like in Mom’s wish-spell. You have to be strong to be a Marshal and a member of the Mikaelson family, right?” PJ joined in and reached for Lizzie’s hand as Pedro took the other.

“Are you ready?” Pedro asked his aunt, looking up with wide and hopeful eyes. There was so much hope in his expression and she knew all he wanted was to protect his family. They had lost so much and Lizzie knew they needed this. She would do anything for them.

“Poisoning is a bit drastic, but I understand where you’re going with all of this. Take the lead, Pedro.” Lizzie instructed, and began to repeat the words her nephews cast over the syrup.

-----/////-----

Josie and Lizzie moved the kitchen table outside into the backyard where another rose-bush had begun to grow beside the gazebo. She worked to set the table, with an extra place for Hope, just in case she showed up. It was a beautiful table if she said so herself. Josie went back in the kitchen to find Lizzie leaning against the island watching Hope the marshal flip a pancake perfectly.

“Hope! You’re already here!” Josie exclaimed, her heart feeling as though it had stopped mid-beat in her chest. She swallowed dryly, her mouth going dry, and hands starting to sweat.

“Well, you promised me pancakes and I came in to find them burning. I hope you don’t mind.” Hope flipped another pancake, and the boys clapped for her.

“I don’t mind at all. The table’s outside, I was just finishing the setup. Thank you, and thank you for coming.” Josie said as she finished gathering up the silverware. “Bring those out when they’re finished, please, and don’t underestimate how much my little boys can eat.”

Hope chuckled. Somehow, she felt at home with this family, in this house. It seemed as though there would always be room with these people for anyone who needed some. Hope was suspicious of the ease she felt. She wished she could give in to the feelings completely.

Hope piled all of the pancakes she had made onto a plate, picked up the pitcher of orange juice, and carried them out to the table. “This all looks amazing, Josie. You’re welcome and thank you for the invitation. All this food looks delicious. Especially those pancakes I made.” Hope chuckled again, set everything down in the places Lizzie indicated, and took a seat.

“So, ahem,” Hope cleared her throat and looked across the table at Josie with a steady smile and clear eyes. “Do you care to explain why I saw Sebastian’s car parked in your driveway when I walked up?”

“Well, uhm, I know you’re looking for him and all, but obviously, why would I have invited you into our home if we were keeping him here. Yes, I stole the car but he had basically kidnapped Lizzie, and she was bleeding and I just wanted her to be okay. She’s my sister and I would do anything for her.” Josie immediately started to ramble as Lizzie and Hope both stared her down in abject horror. “And it’s like you said, Sebastian’s missing. It’s not like I can give him his car back while he’s still missing. I wouldn’t be able to find him.”

Hope looked a bit surprised and amused by Josie’s response. She found the rambling adorable, but also extremely suspicious. There wasn’t a possible good reason for Josie to have stolen Sebastian’s car… though from what she knew of him it was possible for him to have kidnapped Lizzie. Hope’s mind was racing a mile a minute. This family was either impossibly brave or completely crazy. Hope was also confident the boys had done something to the syrup. They burst into giggles every time she reached for it.

“You know, given how long I’ve been hunting him, that sounds completely plausible.” Hope reached into her bag and pulled out some photos. “There have been other girls, usually one every thirty or so years since his escape in 1975. They were all marked with this brand.” Hope pushed the photos across the table.

Josie looked nauseous as Lizzie’s face went from angry to pained to distant. While analyzing Lizzie’s expression, Josie’s had turned to fury. “I, uh, I see. You recognize it. I’m sorry you went through that, Ms.Saltzman.” Hope turned to Lizzie.

“Call me Lizzie, please. You look the same age as us and there are two Saltzman ladies present. We wanted him dead, no kidding, but for the most part, we’re just traumatized.” Lizzie protested and put the syrup in front of Hope. She decided then that she didn’t much like the Marshal.

“So, after breakfast, would you mind if I searched the car?” Hope asked, giving in and pouring the syrup, just a bit off a corner of a pancake. “If I find something inside, I can cast a locator spell and catch this bastard before he hurts anyone else.”

“Not at all… so, you’re a witch as well?” Josie asked, interest plain in her eyes. Lizzie looked across the table to give the younger twins an ‘I told you so’ look. They were paying no attention, plainly about to run off and catch the round, green toad they saw croaking nearby.

Lizzie’s focus was drawn back to Hope as she began to cough and choke. Lizzie caught a flash of golden yellow eyes as Hope washed down the vervain laced pancakes with a mouthful of orange juice.

“Yes, I am, and I’m also a werewolf. It’s a very long story. There’s a little vampire thrown in as well, but we don’t need to get into that.” Hope’s voice was rough from the wolfsbane, but she didn’t seem to be too upset by the mild poisoning. “I think I’ll go and search the car now if you don’t mind.”

Hope excused herself from the table and walked through the garden towards the driveway.

“Eyes both blue and yellow.” Josie mumbled under her breath.

“Born of all three factions.” Lizzie added in reply, her face filled with shock, eyes wide.

“A Marshal’s badge is shaped like…” Josie started but couldn’t finish her sentence.

“Like a star.” Lizzie finished.

Notes:

My favorite chapter. I really wanted Hope's entrance to be 'just right' and for Josie to be at her most Josie

Chapter 7

“Look, Ms.Marshall!” Pedro called out after her, with PJ hot on his heels.

“We caught him ourselves,” Pedro added. He seemed equally proud of the toad in his brother’s hands. Hope couldn’t help but to stop and look.

“Very nice, guys! You know where I’m from we cook these guys up into gumbo and eat them.” Hope said as she took a look at their prize. “I tend to leave wolfsbane out of my recipes, though.” she leveled a knowing look their way and made her eyes flash once more. Pedro and PJ both gulped audibly in response.

The frog croaked but seemed to choke on the sound until a small flash of metal fell out of its mouth. Hope held out a hand for the twins to stay back. She pulled a pen out of her pocket and lifted the ring off of the mulch in the flowerbed. It was the exact ring she had never known to leave her quarry’s finger. The one used to brand his victims. She deposited the object into an evidence bag from her coat.

“Have you ever seen a ring like that before, fellas?” Hope asked, not expecting any recognition from two witch-boys plainly under ten years old.

“That’s a daylight ring made by a witch from lapis lazuli so a vampire can walk in the sun. I don’t think we’ve ever seen one in person before, have we Pedro?” PJ asked his brother, clearly quoting from memory.

Pedro shrugged and Hope gave PJ a well-deserved high-five. “I’ll let the whole poisoning thing go if you want a couple of days to tell your mom and aunts about the ring. Deal?” Hope shook their hands and went on to search the car.

She was very doubtful they would uphold their end of the deal but hoped it would give her the time she needed to find anything there might be to be found. Hope swung the car door open and immediately winced at the onslaught of terrible smells upon her enhanced senses. She took several deep breaths and began her search. After about twenty minutes of looking, including the insides of the seats, dashboard, and the false bottom of the trunk; Hope had only found several illegal arms and spilled herbs of some variety in the floorboard. Hope packed them away for the lab to analyze and headed off to town to interview the neighbors.

“Oh, the Mikaelson family? The Saltzman twins? They’re infamous warlocks. Sell their souls to demons on their thirteenth birthdays and renew the pact on Halloween by flying off the roof of that obnoxiously large haunted house they live in.” said one neighbor.

“When they get mad at you they can hex you with chickenpox and ven-venereal diseases!” said the neighbor’s son.

“I have lived in this town my whole life and the aunts have never aged. Not even a little bit. My mother told me it was because they consumed the placentas of every baby they helped to birth. Eventually, they figured out how to produce and grow them on their own, probably selling them as well.” another neighbor, an old woman in a wheelchair, said in a tone of disgust.

“I don’t know who this guy you’re looking for is but I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned up in a ditch.”

“She doesn’t mean that Lizzie or Josie killed him, just that one of them probably shook his hand and he dropped dead shortly thereafter.”

“Any person who has ever been known to take on a Saltzman will live for a time in the euphoria of their love, then will die suddenly, before their time. Every time.”
“You expect me to believe that the entire Saltzman family is cursed?” Hope scoffed and moved on, though that answer bothered her more than most.

“I mean witches, yes. They are. Psycho evil killers, who run a placenta farm? Definitely not. There’s no way. The Saltzmans are good witches. They’ve just had a rough go of it.” Said MG when Hope stopped by the shop to ask him questions.

He was still prattling on when Hope saw Josie come into the room and everything MG was saying faded into background noise, then nothing at all. Josie waved to Hope and Hope waved awkwardly back with a hesitant smile, noting Josie’s slight blush. She watched her take her place behind the counter as an older balding man came after her.

“You know, I could have gone to an actual medical doctor for this issue of mine, but it seems the more I use, the less it works. Your product doesn’t work.” he berated Josie as she angrily stirred her coffee. It sploshed over the edges of her to-go cup and onto the counter. Hope couldn’t help noticing that when she let go it kept stirring itself for much too long.

“That’s because this product doesn’t go on your head.” Josie said, leaning forward and meeting his eyes meaningfully.

“If it doesn’t go on my head, then where the hell does it go?” he asked angrily. Hope stood a bit straighter at that and MG finally shut up.

Josie spoke very slowly and enunciated her words very clearly. “I want you to think really hard.” she raised her eyebrows until a look of understanding filled his eyes.

“Oh. Oohh. My mistake.” the man turned tail and left immediately, clearly very embarrassed. Hope found herself chuckling aloud, if still very quietly.

Josie met Hope’s eyes and offered her another small, hesitant smile before grabbing something random off of a shelf. She hopped in line and promptly spent more on shampoo than she ever had in her life before. Hope spared one more look through the glass on the way out.

------//////-----

“Hey!” a voice rang out from behind her as she headed down the street back towards the Bed and Breakfast where she’d been staying. “Am I under some kind of surveillance?”

“Should you be?” Hope asked in reply, unsure of the source of Josie’s anger, standing next to the water, her unnaturally expensive shampoo in hand.

“If there’s something you want to know, just ask me!” Josie shouted, not knowing who around them stopped to stare.

“Haha, I already did.” Hope chuckled. “Even you have to know that there were issues with your story. Pieces missing. I want to talk to you more after I finish up my homework here and see about getting that old junker out of your driveway?”

“Sure, uhm, you’ve already seen all over my house and the grounds without finding any evil vampires there. You saw the greenhouse interviewing my traumatized sister. What else could you possibly want to take a look at?” Josie asked, getting fed up with the questions and flirtations that seemed to be endless. Hope’s eyes had glazed over a bit and her eyes seemed completely stuck on Josie’s lips. “Are you even listening to me?! You seemed to be doing a lot of listening when you asked everyone around town about me and have them all thinking I’m a killer!”

“Which people?” Hope asked, wondering why such a wonderful woman was so poorly regarded amongst people she was attempting to help.

“Yes, we are witch people, but so are you and I have avoided practicing at all costs since my parents died. Real magic, true magic, has never done anything but bring trouble to good people who didn’t want to do anything but lead happy lives with the people they care most about.” Josie scoffed darkly. “You should come around on Halloween. We all jump off the roof and fly. That’s good magic there. We kill our spouses too.”

Josie’s voice had gone low, serious, and a little more sultry than Hope had become accustomed to. She knew herself to be in dangerous territory now.

“Or is that outside of your jurisdiction? Remind me again what it is your people are in charge of?”

“Tell me what kind of craft your family is into, then. Assure me I have nothing to worry about.” Hope requested, setting one shoulder against her car before taking off. She crossed her arms over her chest as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth.

“The aunts… they like to meddle in people’s love lives. I make bath oils, and soaps, and poultices. We are all licensed midwives. There is nothing more magical than helping life to come into the world. It’s all very practical magic. Symbols and ideas. All of these things are magic of one kind or another.” Josie continued, her anger faded and her eyes alight as she spoke about something she was passionate about. Hope understood the magic of symbolism from her studies and experience but sat back to listen to Josie anyway.

“May I see your badge?” Josie asked. “It’s just a star, a symbol, and more specifically your talisman. You can’t use this alone to stop criminals in their tracks. This star, your badge, has power because we believe it does, because of what it represents.” Josie ran her thumb across it. “I wish you could believe me.”

Josie sighed, took Hope’s hand, put the badge back in it, and closed the other woman’s fingers around it.

“Josie,” Hope called after her, a touched and weighted effect to her voice. “Did you kill Sebastian?”

“Yeah, a couple of times,” Josie called over her shoulder, her voice exhausted and sarcastic, nearly caustic with venom.

Chapter 8

Hope bought a fifth of bourbon on her way back to the bed and breakfast where she was staying. After three days of interviews and the argument with Josie, her head was spinning. Lab results had been slid beneath her bedroom door. She hadn’t had enough to drink to deal with any of the nonsense. Hope threw the results onto the small table covered in pictures forms, and her notes before falling onto her bed face first.

For some reason, she still just wanted to talk to Josie more. Even if the other woman was still mad at her, even if Josie’s sons had attempted to poison her, ad the entire town believed her family was comprised of devil worshippers. Hope wanted to hear her voice.

Sifting through evidence usually worked to keep her mind off of things. Hope moved the paperwork from the table to her bed and laid the lab results out across where they had been. She left the ring and the letter out where she could see them. It took reading through the results three times and a glass of bourbon for her to process them. Belladonna and vervain. Of course. Hope should have known.

“Ms.Saltzman?” Hope said into the phone on the table in front of her the next morning after taking some time to process. “I would recommend that the next time we talk, or with your sister, that you have a lawyer present.”

“Well, that’s too bad. I’m heading up the sidewalk with coffee and ‘I’m sorry we fought’ muffins.” Josie chuckled lightly, her ever-awkward voice tinged with anxiety or nerves. “Be there in just a minute and we can talk through whatever you think you know, okay?”

Josie hung up before Hope could get another word in edgewise. The older girl immediately started shoving clothes into the laundry hamper and beneath the bed in an attempt to disguise her mess. Hope had just shoved Sebastian’s daylight ring into her pocket when she heard Josie knock on the door.

Hope let Josie in, scratching sheepishly at the back of her neck and gesturing for her to come in. “Thank you for breakfast.” Hope offered her an almost queasy looking smile before taking the coffee and clearing room for the basket on the table.

This was a much different Hope than Josie had seen before. Her hair was tied up in a loose and messy bun, she wore a comfy sweater and generally seemed much softer. Every surface Josie could see was covered in paperwork and evidence. Josie figure she definitely shouldn’t be seeing any of them. She looked up into Hope’s eyes, seeing exhaustion and pride there, despite the mess surrounding them.

“So, you wanted to talk?” Hope asked, sliding a bunch of papers into a folder from the table in front of them. She tucked them into a bag stuffed full of files that had been stuffed full of papers.

Beneath the sheets of paper Hope moved, Josie saw the corner of an envelope, and then her sister’s name scrawled across it in her handwriting. Josie grabbed it up and pulled the letter from inside. This was the exact one she had sent to her sister.

“So, how many times did you read my letter?” Josie asked accusation and a tinge of amusement in her voice.

Hope swallowed hard and winced again. “A few. Uhm, I have studied all of the evidence I’ve been able to get my hands on. Due diligence and all.” she felt her blush darken and sat down, pulling up the audio recorder on her cell phone.

“This is the testimony of Josette Saltzman,” Hope said into the phone, stated the date and spent a couple of moments pinching herself into staying focused. “Would you like to sit down.”

Suddenly the whole world began to feel much too quiet.

“Where is Sebastian Angelov?” Hope asked, her tone and her eyes beginning to grow more serious.

“I believe him to be in this spirit world,” Josie said honestly, her voice plain and matter-of-fact.

“So, you think he’s dead.”

“No, I think he’s haunting us.” she corrected. Josie held the letter up again. “What evidence did you get from reading this?”

“Did you or your sister kill Sebastian”

“Lizzie didn’t kill anybody.”

“Lizzie didn’t but you did.” Hope leaned forward, trying to read Josie’s expression. “Huh? Did you? Josie, did you?”

“And what would you do if I said I did kill him? What, would you send me to some prison for witches on a black site somewhere all because the world is short one misogynistic creep of a vampire?” Josie asked, standing and pacing across the room, her voice growing stronger as she did so.

“That isn’t for you or me to decide. Sebastian should have been held accountable. Desiccation or imprisonment. He was old. He saw and did so much we could have learned from. Not ever terrible vampire needs to be met with a stake. This is why we are creating a supernatural judicial system.” Hope spoke a little more passionately, standing again as well.

“He has been punished exactly as he deserved. You weren’t there. You didn’t see Lizzie’s face.” Josie’s voice cracked at the memory.

“Yeah?” Hope asked. Her voice was full of disbelief as she sighed and headed back across the room, unsure of when she had gotten so close to Josie.

Hope picked her phone up and saved the recording, sticking it in her back pocket. “You really should get a lawyer, before we go any further. Now listen, I have no idea what kind of trouble you’ve gotten yourself into, but if you could just trust me and tell me the whole story, I promise you I will do everything in my power to keep you out of harm’s way.” Hope’s voice was soft again, her blue eyes glittering with meaning. She had gotten close to Josie again, could see unshed tears in her eyes and the small quirk of her eyes that almost counted as a smile.

Hope had some small understanding of what this young woman had been through in her life. She had known more than her fair share of loss in her twenty-four years. There was something about those down-turned dark eyes that made Hope desperate to take care of Josie.

Hope dropped her bags and leaned in the last three inches, closing the distance so Josie was between herself and the wall. Her arm was locked against the wall giving Josie room to move, escape, or push her away if she wanted to. Instead, Josie’s arms wound around Hope’s neck and one tangled in her hair. She pulled her close and didn’t seem about to let her go. Hope was glad.

A full list of the reasons this was wrong and bad, including the ‘Saltzman curse’, flooded through her mind. Hope pulled away, leaned her head down and away, Josie tilted Hope’s chin up to meet her eyes before kissing her once more. Hope melted into the to her woman once more as she pushed Josie towards the bed and onto the piles of photos and papers. She had just begun to shrug out of her sweater and tossed her badge across the room when she felt her eyes flash yellow. It took a small force of will to make her wolf side back down, but it was doable.

Josie seemed to have a moment of realization. She pulled her shirt back over her head. “I can’t. Not right now. I’m sorry.” Josie coughed quietly to herself. She stood up and gathered her belongings.

Chapter 9

“Of course. No worries.” Hope spoke in a hoarse voice and tried to pull herself together. She took some deep breaths and ran her hands through her hair.

Josie started her walk home and felt as though she could hear her kids on the breeze. After a moment she realized she actually could hear Pedro and PJ. Josie started to run, a feeling of dread washing over her. Hope’s ears perked up as well. She didn’t know what it was, but she could feel Josie and knew something was wrong.

Josie started to run, her feet carrying her faster than they should have been able to. As soon as her body crossed the threshold, cold water started to run through her veins. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t the boys, though she could hear them running towards her. She could hear her sons crying for her, but knew there was something wrong with Lizzie. Pedro and PJ ran to her, crying and told her where to find her twin.

Josie ran up the stairs to find Lizzie in her attic bedroom. Her hair was stuck to her face with sweat as her body spasmed and jerked off of the bed. She groaned and panted with exhaustion as Josie froze in panic in the doorway. A hand landed on her shoulder as Hope ran up behind her, not even winded from the run. Her hand thrust between Josie and Lizzie’s, ready to cast a spell at any moment.

A grey ghastly form manifested in and above Lizzie as she fell limply back onto the bed. The grey smoke coalesced into a body, seeming to solidify until Hope and Josie could make out Sebastian’s face. He smiled sickeningly.

“Marshal Marshall-Mikaelson. It’s been a while. Just looking at you makes me homesick.” Sebastian stood up fully and rolled his neck, as Hope stepped further into the room.

Josie pressed herself back against the wall, letting Hope keep all of Sebastian’s attention on her as she edged closer and closer to her sister. Sebastian circled Hope as Josie attempted not to disrupt anything. She even held her breath, though she doubted it would make any kind of a difference. Sebastian whipped his head around 180 degrees when Josie reached for her sister’s hand. He tsk-ed at her and she backed away again.

Sebastian turned back to Hope. “What’s wrong? Wolf got your tongue?” he asked with a greasy smile. The specter took a step closer to her and thrust his hand through her breastbone and she could feel him squeezing her heart inside her chest. Hope choked and spluttered before falling heavily onto her knees. She could feel the oxygen draining from her brain and her bloodstream.

Sebastian laughed then, as he watched Hope choke and begin to die, slowly crumbling away to nothing. Then, as Josie jumped for Lizzie, grasping her hand tightly, his laughter turned to a shriek. His hand was singed, he cradled it against his chest. Hope shuffled back, her badge falling to the ground and beginning to glow a light red. She flattened her hand against her chest right where Sebastian’s hand had pressed.

Josie could see the shape of the star burnt black into the palm of Sebastian’s hand. Hope still gasped, the veins of her face pulsing as she worked to breathe. Her hand grasped to retrieve her badge, holding it up defiantly. Just as soon as Sebastian met the eyes of his reflection in the silver, his form turned from solid to gaseous, then began to disperse completely. Hope looked at the badge in amazement as all three women sat back and attempted to regain their breath.

-----/////------

Josie pulled on a sweater and stepped outside to where Hope sat beneath the gazebo, playing with one of the charms on her necklaces. She was staring up at the moon and appeared to be deep in thought. “What the hell just happened in there?” Hope asked dully, her eyes empty.

Josie smiled softly, sat beside Hope and patted her hand. “When you said you were being haunted, you meant really haunted.”

“Yes, you just banished his spirit, but I am the one who took his life.” Josie refuted immediately. “I will tell you everything you need to know and everything you can think of to ask, I will answer. While we are at it I’ll tell you where I buried him and I would give you the ring if I knew where it was.”

Josie was storming around the yard angrily, the sun setting behind her, and the crashing of the waves in the background. Her hair whipped around behind her as she paced back and forth.

“Hold on, hold on, hold on… just a fucking second would you?” Hope groaned as she stood up and began pacing counter to Josie’s steps. “Let’s just take this one step at a time. I took an oath to find and capture the worst of the worst. Emphasis on capture. Not kill or banish. Apprehend!”

“I thought I was coming here to bring Sebastian to justice. Generally, that’s what I do.” Hope sighed heavily once more. “You asked me how many times I read your letter… it must have been about a thousand times. Now… now I know that it was the letter more than anything else that brought me here. It was you and that is confusing as hell to me.”

“The letter… the reason you were drawn here, without knowing why is because I sent for you. When I was a little girl, my parents died in connection with my family’s curse. I wanted to avoid that kind of pain again at all costs, so I summoned someone impossible who couldn’t possibly exist. Eyes both blue and yellow, born of all three factions, as strong as they are small. The impossible traits of an impossible person so I would never have to fall in love.” Josie explained, fighting as hard as she could to keep her voice from breaking

Hope’s brow furrowed in confusion, hurt on Josie’s behalf by the kind of pain her younger self had to have gone through to wish for something like that. She also remembered her own younger self, outside in the garden amongst the flowers at the home she had shared with her mother when she was eight years old. White petals had come out of nowhere to settle in a circle around her. The younger Hope had found the moment magical. Now, she knew it had been.

“So you’re saying that everything I’ve been feeling is just because of some spell you cast when you were a kid?” Hope asked, disbelievingly. Her voice hard with an indomitable inner strength, an impossible kind of strength. Impossible had been one of the components of the spell.

“You’re right. It isn’t real and if you were to… I don’t know… decide to stay, I wouldn’t know for sure if you actually cared about me or if it were the wish spell.” Josie argued, twisting her mouth into a tight line in an attempt to conceal her emotions.

“Worse, you wouldn’t know if I were really feeling the same way towards you or if I just didn’t want you to send me to prison. It wouldn’t be fair to either of us.” A tear slid down Josie’s cheek and she sniffled quietly to herself.

“Yeah, well…” Hope scoffed and grinned. “You know, every relationship has its problems and we haven’t even broached mine yet.”

Josie chuckled at that though sadness still tinged her dark eyes.

“I am right though, aren’t I? You don’t know. You would never be sure.” Josie said, putting a bit more force behind her words. She could see the effect they had on Hope. The marshal looked as though she had been punched in the stomach.

“Okay then, so, how about you keep on doing your Josie thing, then. You live your life with your cray meddling aunts, and your perfectly brilliant boys, and your wild sister.” Hope stepped into Josie’s space once more, her soft and sad smile also oddly reassuring to Josie’s aching heart. “In the meantime, I will keep doing my thing. I will… investigate ancient crappy supernaturals, and drink too much, and take on fights with people twice my size. Okay?”

“Okay,” Josie replied, her voice finally breaking. She stared down at her feet in an attempt to keep from crying. When she looked up again, Hope was walking away. The smaller girl, looking every inch the proud were-witch, turned back, clearly fighting back her own emotions.

“You know, curses only have power when you believe in them,” Hope looked back with a hesitant smile. “And I don’t… you know what, I wished for you too.”

Those words were the ones to finally push Josie past her breaking point. She sat down beside the rosebush where they had buried Sebastian to cry. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she choked on her sobs. Hope turned and left. Josie had to wonder if this time it was for good.

After finishing her cry, Josie stepped back into the house, hoping against all hope that everyone inside was asleep. Lizzie was standing with one shoulder against the kitchen door frame and a hand on one hip. Her head was cocked to one side. Josie smiled sadly and walked into her open arms to bury her face in her sister’s shoulder. Lizzie squeezed her back, nuzzling the top of her head.

Lizzie turned into the hug and slowly dragged her tongue along the side of Josie’s neck, laughing almost drunkenly. “You would taste like a fine red wine. I always was into sisters.” said a distinctly male voice from her sister’s mouth. Josie pulled out of her grip and stumbled backward.

She took a deep steadying breath and whipped around to backhand her sister in the face. Lizzie was rammed back into the bookcase, a distinctly Sebastian curse coming out of her mouth before a tome struck the back of her head, knocking her out. Her fists raised and panting, Josie took a step back, ready to go again.

“Momma!” Pedro yelled, running up to grasp her skirt and hang on for dear life. PJ ran up to grab his brother’s hand in turn. Books flew at Lizzie by the younger twins’ command, knocking her out.

“It looks like we definitely aren’t in the nick of time,” Freya remarked darkly. She stepped up, her hand raised at the ready, just in case.

“My love, I think our instincts are getting a little rusty. Put your hand down. That is still our niece’s body that evil man has taken for a joyride.” Keelin reached out and began to manually unclench Josie’s fists. Her eyes were calculating as she reached beneath a counter in the mudroom, pulling out a large length of rope.

Notes:

I would sacrifice my left tit for more comments

Chapter 10

Josie was too busy screaming into a pillow to hear her Aunt Freya’s lecture while her Aunt Keelin used the vervain soaked ropes to tie Elizabeth Saltzman to a recliner.

“This is why you don’t ‘dabble’ in the arcane forces, Jo. You can’t successfully practice magic while still looking down your nose at it.” Freya was still going when Josie put the pillow down.

“I know, I know. Just tell me how to fix this and I will.” Josie punched the pillow furiously.

“We have to banish Sebastian for good. We have to force his spirit out of Elizabeth’s body, but for that, we require a full coven. Nine women, though twelve would be better.” Freya continued to think out loud.

“Do you have any friends, Josette?” Keelin asked.

------/////------

Despite her better judgment, and with the absolute lowest of expectations, Josie picked up the phone and opened her PTA phone tree binder.

“Karen! Hi, it’s Josie. I’m activating the phone tree! So… you know all of that stuff everyone is always whispering about me? Not the gay stuff, the witch stuff… the hexes, the spells, the thing is, it’s true! I’m a witch! My sister just got out of the absolute worst relationship…”

The boys jumped in to help immediately, taking all of the breakables down off of the walls. They didn’t completely grasp the gravity of the situation but enjoyed setting the candles all over the room and attempting to light them with a puff of air like their mother.

Pedro and PJ each took one side of the chair Lizzie was tied to, pushing it across the room. From beneath the chair, a trail of toads was left in the wake. Once they were all released into the garden, the boys were sent to direct everyone else inside to the kitchen. Each member from the PTA came in from the garden side door, bearing a broom in hand. From there the aunts started to pass out instructions, the women from town laughing nervously, a glimmer of repressed excitement in their eyes.

“Lookie here!” Freya called over to ‘Karen’, stirring a cauldron that smelled like death. “This is fantastic stuff, great for the pores and rendering one state or another permanent. Like a period at the end of a sentence.“

“The living room is almost ready, Aunt Freya. Has everyone arrived?” Josie asked, counting heads and brooms. “Come on everyone, grab your brooms and form a circle.”

“Alright, everyone. Hold your brooms at staff length, handle to broom. This makes a circle around Lizzie, see?” Freya instructed, her niece in the fetal position on the floor.

“Damn. I have been strung out by a guy before, but never like this.” Maya spoke softly.

“Remember as we go forth, it is only with our hearts beating as one we can save the life of our dear sister.” Freya shot the girl a look to shut her up. She began to chant and slowly but surely the other women began to join in.

Josie could feel the energy from each one of the women meet and mingle with that of her own and her aunts. The voices of the women grew in confidence, then in speed. The power behind the words grew with them until a wind picked up in the room and the lights began to flicker. Lizzie, still being controlled by Sebastian, turned over onto her stomach… beat at the floor with her fists and clawed at the wood with her blunt fingernails. The stronger the chanting became, the louder and more hoarse and furious Lizzie’s shrieking became.

Josie couldn’t take it any longer. She broke from her place in the circle and the women seemed to almost unknowingly fill it in. Being careful not to disturb the salt circle, Josie laid on the floor. She spoke encouraging words and maintained a lock with her sister’s eyes. Lizzie’s face was blood red, eyes completely back. Sebastian was in complete control. She forced her way to her feet and charged Josie. She was knocked back on her ass by the salt circle.

All of the women jumped, pressing themselves back against the walls, as far from Lizzie as they could get without leaving the room. Josie resumed her place on the floor and did her best to keep her lock with Lizzie’s eyes; her sister’s soul fighting towards the forefront.

“Liz… Lizzie, you have to hold on. Please, Lizzie. For me. You have to hold on for me.” Josie spoke softly and insistently.

“Let...him...take me. You’ll be safe then. Just let me go, Jo, and let him… have...me.” Lizzie whispered back. Josie forgot that she was in a room full of people and for a moment felt as though they were the only people in the world. Keelin pulled Freya in close, unable to take their eyes off of the scene playing out in front of them.

“Oh, Jo… please.” Lizzie said as she cried and groaned at the soul trying to force her own out.

“No, Lizzie, you can’t die on me. We’re supposed to go out together, remember?” Josie cried quietly as well. “You promised me and… and today is not that day.”

“I love you, Josie.” Lizzie said on an exhale and closed her eyes.

“No, no, I know how to fix this.” Josie slapped the ground beside herself and stood up. “Get the girls back in a circle. I’ve got this.”

Josie opened a gap in the circle of brooms and poured herself a bottle of Sebastian’s red wine. She took a sip and waved the bottle beneath Lizzie’s nose so he could catch a whiff. “Hey, Sebastian. I have a glass with your name on it.” Lizzie sat up slowly, clearly no longer herself.

“There you are, yeah come on out to play you slimy little bastard. Is this what you want?” Josie asked, sliding the bottle closer to the circle. “Well, this is what you can’t have.”

Lizzie lunged at Josie like a while animal, roaring at the top of her lungs. The aunts, flanking Josie, each grabbed hold of one wrist. Josie pulled a pocket knife and slashed her hand open before anyone could stop her. “My blood.” she intoned.

Freya held Lizzie’s hand out to her. “Your blood,” Josie spoke again, she slapped her palm against Lizzie’s. “Our blood.”

“Saltzman blood. Parker blood.” Freya echoed them and Josie stepped into the circle, not letting go of her sister’s hand, and pulling her sister close as the light began to emanate from their joined hands to fill the salt circle. The women of the outer circle all joined hands one by one, surrounding the sisters as the memories of their shared traumas, their victories, the moments of true sisterhood and friendship flashed through their minds.

The light grew and expanded around them until it popped like a bubble, sending everyone flying, though Josie’s grip on Lizzie was too tight to pull them apart. The light and emotions reentered Lizzie’s eyes and Josie recognized her sister in them once more. She laughed in relief and Lizzie joined in. Eventually, all of the women in the room were laughing as well, though none could say why.

“Heads up, ladies,” Freya advised, gesturing with her broom to the ceiling. A dark cloud had gathered, roiling a couple of feet above their heads. “Ashes to ashes.”

“Dust to dust.” Keelin finished, bringing Pedro and PJ to help with clean up as the ashes began to fall.

“Luckily, we all brought brooms.” Karen chimed in.

“I wonder if that would work on my ex-husband.” someone else muttered.

Chapter 11: Epilogue

Everyone picked up a broom and began to sweep what was left of Sebastian out into the garden, the aunts following behind with their cauldron of nastiness. The ashes coalesced amongst the roses where Sebastian was buried. With a little help from the younger twins, they poured the pot out over it all and by morning the roses and the vines were dead.

Josie set immediately to burning the remnants, cutting the vines away from the gazebo and piling them up.

“Hey, something came for you!” Lizzie called from inside stepping out of the house to find her sister and hand her the sealed, very official-looking envelope.

Josie began to read out loud after ripping into it. “The United States’ Marshal’s Office has hereby pronounced the official cause of Sebastian Angelov’s death as… accidental.” Josie sighed in relief. “Jewelry found in the ashes of the structure provided identification. Sincerely, Hope Mikaelson, US Marshal and Special Investigator.”

The ring fell out of the folded paper onto the ground in front of Josie. She passed it to her sister who promptly threw it as hard as she could towards the water. When it seemed like it was about to hit the water she said “Motus” and it flew even farther. Josie continued to search for anything else inside of the package until Lizzie stopped her.

“I don’t think Hope is actually in there, Josie.” Lizzie said softly.

“What would you do, Liz?” Josie asked.

“The better question is ‘what wouldn’t I do?’ if it were right, Jo?”

-----/////-----

Josie put on a long white dress. The season had just turned to Fall and no flowers were blooming. She chose the most intact and beautiful orange maple leaf she could find, brought it with her to the old bedroom balcony and kissed it. The leaf made a stunning silhouette against the crescent moon. Josie held it out and let the leaf fall, believing it would find its way to where she needed.

A week passed and Josie put those thoughts from her mind, telling herself that if it was going to be, it would be. On the ninth day, the trees began to whisper to her once more. Josie ran to her room, changed, then ran to the garden to meet Hope, flying past her sisters and her aunts. Hope was at the gate once more, a wide smile on her face. She didn’t have the words, so she leaned across and kissed Hope, deciding to believe in herself above anything else.

Josie didn’t believe that flower petals or maple leaves had healed her broken heart. She couldn’t be sure it was their joined hands that had set Lizzie free. She would like to think so. It was a nice thought.

On Halloween, she bought them a long black dress and a black umbrella, her boys wore full black suits. They followed Freya and Keelin to the roof of the Mikaelson house, Hope’s ancestral home. For the first time, a crowd of people had gathered below, either cheering or holding their breaths expectantly.

“Are you sure about this?” Hope asked nervously, popping her umbrella open along with everyone else.

Josie readjusted the tall black hat on her head for her. “Of course I am. Just believe in me.” she reassured her and took Hope’s hand on her left and Lizzie’s on her right.

“Wolves always land on their feet, anyway, right Marshall Marshal?” Lizzie teased.

“Why do I have to do this every year, Freya? I’m not even a witch.” Keelin protested just as she did every year.

“We have a reputation to maintain, my love.” Freya said with a mischievous smile. She counted to three and they all jumped, drifting gently to the ground, a slight puff of dust clouding off the ground around them as they landed.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 6 of Hope/Josie