Vincent had left a message saying that there was a missing kid and that the whole city was in danger, and that it was his fault.

I walked into the church the next morning to see Vincent burning a book in a flaming bowl. "I got your message about the missing boy. My guys are out searching. Now, I'm gonna need you to shed some light. How does one missing witch mean the whole city's in danger?"

Vincent turned to face me. "You remember my wife Eva, right?"

I nodded. "Eva, yeah, the child-stealing psycho."

"Yeah, she wasn't always like that, Noah," Vincent told me. "What you saw was a shell. She was everything, man. She was smart, she was beautiful. She was just full of love and light. And then something evil got inside her and twisted her up. And it left nothing but darkness. And now I think that that same darkness has come back again."

"Eva was trying to sacrifice nine children," I told him. "Now, do you really think that somebody is--"

"Man, Adam Folsom was only the first," Vincent told me. "Whoever's doing this, they're gonna want more."

I knew that Vincent was scared of this thing, which was surprising and confusing to me, because he never seemed to be scared of anything.

****

Later, Vincent was tapping together two sticks in a rhythmic fashion, chanting a spell under his breath.

I walked toward him. "Looks like you're really getting into that spell there. Got a song stuck in your head or something that you're channeling into that work you're doing?"

Vincent sighed. "Noah, thanks for helping, man. You got some news for me?"

"Not the good kind," I answered. "Adam Folsom isn't the only kid that's missing. There's three additional reports of missing kids. All right, now, I made sure that the cops are staying out of this one in case something seriously supernatural is going on."

"Thanks," Vincent told me.

"So it's just up to us," I told him.

Marcel walked in. "Actually, it's up to the three of us." I looked at Marcel in annoyance, turning to Vincent, knowing that he had called him, giving him a look. Vincent pursed his lips together slightly. "You guys need another one if you're gonna get this done. One of our guys spotted some lights at the old Strix mansion. Now, the place has been boarded up for years. All of a sudden, lock is busted off the front gate."

I looked between them, sighing. "Fine. These kidnappings are gonna hit the press. My guess, we have till the end of the day, at best." 

Vincent grabbed his jacket, walking toward the door. "Let's go."

I looked at the fire bowl. "Hey, hold up." Vincent and Marcel turned back. I pulled out the book from the remains of the ashes, revealing that it wasn't even singed. "Weren't you just soaking this thing in lighter fluid this morning?"

Vincent was worried and a little scared, walking closer. "Guys, do me a favor. I want you to keep that book far away from me. If I even try to come for it, I want you to kill me."

Marcel and I looked at Vincent in confusion, but before we could ask what was going on, he walked away. We exchanged a look.

****

Marcel pulled us up to the Davilla Estate in his fancy car. We opened the butterfly doors, getting out, closing the doors.

Marcel looked at Vincent. "I know you've seen a lot of crazy over the years, but I've never seen you scared. So you gonna tell us what we're up against here?"

Vincent sighed, walking toward the front gate of the estate. "The past. Your past, my past. Eight years ago, you two and your vampires were running this city with an iron fist. You had a lot of witches terrified at every single turn."

"We were protecting Davina," I told him.

"Well, I had something to protect, too," Vincent told us. "And I wanted to take you two down. I wanted to take all the vampires down. For my wife. For my unborn kid. So I started looking for forms of magic that you can't defend against. Can't find anything. And then one night, I walk into my house, and I find that notebook just sitting on the table. It's an instruction manual. Sacrificial magic, but it's not like anything I've ever seen practiced anywhere. Made me feel invincible."

"It's not like your dad's the first New Orleans witch to make a sacrifice to his Ancestors," Marcel told him.

"This is not to the Ancestors, Marcel," Vincent told him. "This is something different. This is something older than the Ancestors. And the book never gave it a name."

"Okay, so who gave you the book?" I asked. "A witch must have planted it--"

"That's the thing, Noah," Vincent told me. "The book's written in my handwriting. And I don't remember writing it."

We were more confused and suspicious about this.

****

I had broken through the gate so we could walk toward the Davilla Estate, looking at Vincent. "We didn't know you back then, when you were with Eva."

"No, well, I sure as hell knew the two of you," Vincent told us.

"I guess war wounds never heal," Marcel told us.

"It wasn't a war, Marcel," Vincent told him. "No, it wasn't a war, it was a slaughter. You see, if witches didn't follow your rules, they got slaughtered."

"Yeah, you blame us for what happened," Marcel told him. "For losing her."

"What happened to Eva was because of me," Vincent told us. "It wasn't because of you. Every day I try to forget that. Every day I lose."

He told us about the time when Eva and Vincent started to sacrifice things truly loved, starting with a pet bird, to use the magic that he was talking about.

"Something truly loved?" I asked. "That's why she started sacrificing kids."

"Eva was committed to that power," Vincent told us. "And she was willing to go further with it than I was, and that scared me. We both agreed to stop, and then one day... babies started to go missing from their beds."

Vincent gave us a look as if to ask, who could be behind that? He walked toward the house.

Marcel and I exchanged a look.

****

Inside, we saw that a man was standing with the four missing children, including Adam. They all had white eyes and in a trance.

Marcel looked at the man. "Get away from them!"

The man used magic to throw a wrought iron fence post into Marcel's chest, pinning him to the column behind him.

I rushed up behind the man, hitting him over the head, making him fall. 

Vincent walked close.

The man chuckled in amusement. "I know you." He stood. "Vincent Griffith."

"How do you know my name?" Vincent asked.

"Because I can hear it," the man answered. We knew that he was talking about the power that Vincent had been talking about. "It is happy you're here. It wants you here." 

Vincent raised his eyebrows in confusion. "It wants me here? What are you talking about?"

"It is that thing, the thing that resides within this city," the man told him. "Within all of us. It is within you, loving you. As it loved your wife."

Vincent glared at the man, tackling him to the floor, kneeling next to him to punch him in the face three times in pure anger. I pulled Vincent away before he got too carried away.

The man laughed in crazily in amusement, knowing what was wrong.

Vincent raised his hands slightly to cast a spell. "Casser les os."

The man used magic to push me to the floor, casting a pain infliction spell that was crazy high in power, making me groan and scream in pain. 

****

The man stopped the pain infliction spell on me long enough to use magic to push Vincent down. "With which eye would you most prefer to view your end?" Marcel came up from behind the man, stabbing him through the back and stomach with the wrought iron post, pulling it out, gripping the man by his throat, lifting him up from the floor. The man cast a heavy pain infliction spell on Marcel and me to make us yell in pain, making Marcel let go, and both of us fall. "Let it be done."

All of the kids that were still in the trance with white eyes fell to the floor, unconscious.

****

The man was still casting the heavy magic on Marcel and me, making us writhe in pain on the floor, channeling the extremely dark and powerful magic from whatever it came from.

Vincent stood behind the man, placing his own knife to his throat. "Let him go. Let him go right now."

"Do you think that you were unique, Vincent?" the man asked. "That it had chosen only you? Don't you see? You freed it, Vincent. You're the one that gave it breath. And now it must be fed."

All of the kids started to shake.

Vincent was angry and in rage, slitting the man's throat, killing him, pushing him down.

Marcel and I looked up in surprise once the pain stopped.

Vincent dropped the knife, breathing heavily, trying not to let any of this affect him, turning away to the kids, turning Adam onto his back to see that his nose was bleeding. "Oh, guys, the spell is already in motion. It's draining the life out of these kids."

I knelt next to them, feeling a kid's head. "They're freezing. Vincent, what the hell is this?"

Vincent stood, looking around, finding the children's belongings on the table nearby. "That witch, he used their personal items to bind them to the spell. Totems. I know this magic. I--I can reverse it." He knelt next to the children, casting the spell. "Nettoyer timoun sa yo, nettoyer timoun sa yo."

Their noses stopped bleeding and they started to wake up.

Adam groaned in pain, looking around, seeing him. "Vincent?"

Vincent sighed in relief, managing a smile. "Oh. Yeah, man." He hugged Adam. "Yeah, you're okay. Can you stand for me?" Marcel and I helped the kids stand. "There you go." Vincent looked at the table again, seeing something off. "Noah, we've got five totems and we got four kids."

"Okay, so who's the other kid?" Marcel asked.

Marcel walked toward the table, picking up a girl's hairbrush, slowly turning it over to reveal to us the Mikaelson symbol on the back of it. We exchanged a look of worry and surprise, realizing that Hope was in danger.

****

Vincent, Marcel and I were still in the pool room with the body of the witch, but the kids were gone.

I looked at Vincent. "Paramedics took the kids to the hospital to get checked out. NOLA PD will notify the parents. Looks like you're a hero."

"Adam could have died," Vincent told us. "All of those kids could have died, and I'm gonna tell you something. If Hope Mikaelson is linked to that spell, she's gonna die. We've got to get her back here. We got to cast a cleansing spell on New Orleans soil."

"I just got rid of them," Marcel told us.

"Well, bring them back, Marcel," I told him. "She's a kid, all right? And she's practically your sister."

Marcel sighed, knowing we were right, but not liking the idea of having to get involved with the Mikaelsons again.

****

Vincent magically sent a message to Hayley to tell her and the others that he knew what was wrong with Hope and that he could cure her, but they had to come back. He turned to face Marcel and me. "It's done."

"All right, fine," I told him. "You meet them. You help them."

"Be discreet," Marcel told us. "All right, I don't want anyone to know that I let them come back here." 

I sighed, nodding. "Why Hope? Huh? Why choose a kid that's probably a thousand miles away?"

"'Cause she's a special witch," Vincent answered. "She's from a special bloodline. She's powerful. She was born here in the Quarter. I mean, a sacrifice like that is something that is gonna be rewarded."

"All right, don't let anything happen to her," Marcel told him.

Vincent nodded reassuringly in agreement, turning away.

"Hey, you said you got into this for the sake of your unborn child," I told him. Vincent turned to face us. "What happened?"

Vincent walked closer. "Well, when I found out Eva was responsible for taking those kids, I knew I had to do something about it. And she was too far gone to answer any questions, so I called some healers in. We tried to cleanse her. I mean, I used every single drop of power that I had. But she wasn't possessed by any demons. She had become her demons. So, I don't know. I don't know what happened to our baby. I don't know if it was the sacrificial magic. I don't know if it was my attempts to save her. Doesn't even matter. Either way, it's my fault."

Marcel and I couldn't help but be somber and sympathetic to the story, though we didn't show it.