Chapter 6
Martels
Getting to France was a long and difficult journey almost seven months of travelling on land and boat, stopping occasionally at villages on the way. Unlike in the show, Finn had stepped up as our de facto leader, much to Elijah's chagrin. Also, unlike in the show, Finn showed no disdain for the rest of us and our gluttony; in fact, he fed just as often as we did. I imagined this had to do with our childhoods, unlike the show, I had kept us all as close-knit as possible, so Finn saw us as actual siblings and not monsters; it also was probably helped by including him in the vow. Finn, like Elijah, was quite honour-bound and would not willingly break a vow, so his inclusion, like Kol's, in the vow we made seemed to cement his place in the family. Kol was only slightly less bloodthirsty than his show counterpart. Feeling robbed of his magic, he acted out. Luckily, I still had much to learn from the former prodigy witch, so teaching seemed to calm his darker impulses. Elijah was almost the same as his show counterpart, just as honourable and neat.
I had tried talking to him about Tatia more than once, but he claimed his mother killed her. I suppose that she managed to get her hands on him after all. Klaus, well, it was hard to tell he seemed fine, I knew that it was not true that everything that had happened definitely affected him, but anytime I tried to bring it up, he would shut down and focus on art. Rebekah my youngest sibling was also similar to her show counterpart, every village we went through she would stop at the markets trying to convince us all that we needed to bye nicer clothes or jewellery, I did not complain much and had given on on more than one occasion buying her quite a fair bit of jewelery. My favouritism for Rebekah had been noticed by all of our siblings, luckily, as far as I was aware, they had no idea about our hidden affair, never once noticing that we disappeared together nightly for hours at a time. That I suppose brings me to myself over there last few months, I kept up training, spending free time practising with my weapons and studying magic, my vampiric abilities had also improved. It seemed as though we had more powers than originally expected, but looking back on the show, I remember Damon's first appearance, he controlled fog, turned into a bird and even seemed to fly. While the last two were beyond my ability for now, I had started getting proficient in controlling fog, able to blanket several metres in a thick fog. We also seemed to have control over shadows as I could bend them to my will for a short time, my compulsion was also improving, I could effortlessly use it to erase any memory someone had of us. While I had not yet shared my control over shadows and my compulsion with my siblings, I had shared my control over fog with them and combined, we could blanket dozens of metres in fog. As also mentioned, my relationship with Rebekah had continued; most days we were joined at the hip, and nights we were entangled in the throes of passion.
It was quite early in the day when we saw a carriage travelling towards us. We were all quite hungry, so we decided it was best to feed on its inhabitants. We had got stopping them down to an art form over the past couple of months. One of us would block the road and signal for help. When it slowed to a stop, the rest of us would pounce upon it from hiding places, a perfect ambush. This tactic had only failed us once, when the carriage driver must have known something was wrong so he sped up hitting Kol head on, this would kill any human unfortunately it only pissed Kol off and he ripped the entire carriage to pieces. The carriage slowed down as Elijah flagged it down, so we pounced from our hiding places in the trees. Immediately, I noticed that all six passengers were well dressed in fancy silks and expensive jewellery, but it did not stop me from feeding through. Rebekah, having finished her meal, started to examine the dresses that belonged to the young women in the carriage. I could see the desire in her eyes. Apparently, Elijah could to as he started "Rebekah we had very talked about this" he stated as though his word was law "no you talked about this, none of us got a say in the matter. Perhaps we could go in there stead live like nobles for once" she said sadly, our travels had left little time for comfort and I knew that it had left us all demoralised. Before the arguments could continue, my hearing picked up a faint heartbeat inside the carriage. In an instant, I was there and pulled out a familiar face, that of Lucien Castle. I had drawn my claws and was about to sink them into his chest and pull out his heart, to save him from becoming trouble in the future, but the voice of Finn called to me to stop. I did barely, I knew that he would cause an ungodly amount of trouble in the future but pissing off my siblings was something I wanted to avoid. Lucien was still dangling in the air my enhanced strength holding him effortlessly a foot off the ground "please don't kill me, I overheard your conversation, I can help you. I was sent to deliver the nobles to the Martels, if you want to convince them that you are them then you need me". I looked around at my siblings, each in contemplation, before the voice of Klaus broke the silence, saying that it should be brought to a vote. My sibling agreed, and we voted that only Elijah and I wanted to kill him and keep moving. I had hoped that Kol would side with us, but unfortunately, he did not. So it was settled that we would follow Lucien to the residence of Count De Martel.
We arrived a couple of hours later, the castle loomed over us, my siblings looked upon it with awe, I was not as impressed, as in my previous life I had visited the remains of castles. Still, it was quite interesting seeing one in perfect condition, the massive stone walls showing no signs of damage. I stepped out of the carriage first with my siblings in tow. Lucien had talked us through most of what was expected of us and had given us extra advice to win the count's favour. We walked through the entrance of the castle, casting my eyes across the room. I saw many nobles dotted about, all turning their eyes toward us as we entered. Three of the figures inside the hall interested me more than the rest, the first being the Count himself, a large man with a heavy gut, probably due to the lavish feasts and not having cause to exercise. The next was the son of the Count, unlike his father, he was lean and not too tall, I could tell just by looking at him he trained to fight, maybe not as much as I, but perhaps he would make a decent sparing partner. The last figure that caught my attention was the daughter of the Count, Aurora De Martel. Her show counterpart was already stunning, but somehow this version was beyond even that, although she could never compete with Rebekah, I could see why both Lucien and Klaus were interested in her. I looked back towards the Count, as we arrived towards him, as recommended by Lucien, the oldest of us, Finn stepped forward and began to introduce us. Finn introduced himself first, being brief, bowing as a sign of respect before stepping to the side and introducing Elijah, who immediately started to talk about hunting with him, one of the interests Lucien revealed the Count had. After Elijah was finished, Finn introduced me, as I stepped forward to bow, I noticed the Count's guards step forward as well. I was briefly confused before realising that my blade still hung at my belt. Smiling, I stood straight. "Do not be concerned that I carry these weapons, the roads are harsh, I only carried them just in case some bandits wished to slow us down", I assured them. They seemed to relax slightly, though their hands were still on their weapons. I stepped to the side next to Elijah and Finn introduced Klaus, then Kol and finally Rebekah. Rebekah stepped forward, wrapped in a stunning sapphire blue dress that clung to her like a second skin and delivered a deep bow, seeing the Count's eyes look my sister up and down with lust in his eyes, I felt my rage begin to boil. My hand instinctively reached for the dagger at my back, before a hand clasped on my shoulder, turning, I met the eyes of Elijah, who lightly shook his head. I looked around, coming to the conclusion that only he had witnessed my murderous intention. I dropped my hands back to my waist. The Count could live, I suppose, for now at least, but before I left this castle, I would take his perverted eyes, before tearing out his spine.
After greeting the Count, Lucien was ordered to show us to our rooms. As we walked through the halls of the castle, Lucien continued to fill us in on information he believed to be important. Shutting out his voice, I looked around the halls, which were large and wide enough for us all to walk side by side comfortably, and the height of the ceiling above our heads also reached several metres. Tapestries lined the wall telling stories of Great battles, each one illuminated by large braziers that burned low. Finally, after walking for a couple of minutes, we reached the rooms we would stay in, befitting the nobles we were pretending to be; each of us had an equally large room.
As I stepped inside my room, I was taken aback by the sheer size of it, easily twice the size of the entire hovel we grew up in, a bed lay on one side of the room larger than any I had seen, even in my previous life. In the corner near the door stood a desk, sturdy and about eight feet long, on the same side, but in the other corner lay a grand copper bath, although its size was excessive, it would fit five people comfortably. I walked towards the bed, I removed my weapons, although I kept them all in arm's reach, before lying down, immediately I was hit by the comfort of it, far grander than the simple animal hide bed I had used for over twenty years. I sank deeper into it, shut my eyes and allowed sleep to take me.
I woke up an hour or two later, as a knock sounded on my door. Standing and walking to the door to answer it, I was surprised to see a face I did not recognise. "My lord, the Count thought you may wish to bathe after a long time on the road and sent me to fill your tub up", the girl said, smiling. I thanked her and allowed her to continue. A hot bath, the entire second life I had only bathed in the freezing river near our village, I could get used to this lifestyle. A face at my door broke me out of my thoughts, my older brother Elijah "Come, brother, I wish to talk" I followed him after he spoke, we walked to a quiet part of the castle where nobody could hear us. "Are you crazy"? He immediately asked. I of course knew what he was on about, my earlier behaviour, reaching for a dagger so I could kill the Count, "he was looking at our sister disrespectfully, and perhaps I lost my temper," I responded, making sure it did not sound too much like an apology. "Really, that is why you did it, because she's our sister, or maybe" he left the sentence open, accusation in his voice. He knew, how could he "if you are to accuse me of something, brother, then you should at least say what you mean". "Do you think i am blind, every night you too sneak off, only returning in the morning, it does not take a genius to work out that you are fucking each other". I looked at him for a second, there was no disgust on his face as I assumed there would be, before I could respond, he began again, "Your secret is safe with me, brother, as long as you are both happy," he continued. I nodded, he turned on his heel and disappeared back down the hall.
I went back to my room. The servants had filled the tub, and, I could finally relax. Just as I was about to close the door a hand pushed it open again. Rebekah walked inside, locking it as she came in, "I saw the servants filling your bath and thought you would enjoy the company". She slipped past me, looking back, she started stripping with a smile on her face, before climbing into the bath. I returned the smile and did the same before joining her. This could be a good couple of months I thought to myself, very good indeed.
Chapter 7
Waking up, I felt the pleasant feeling of Rebekah's head against my chest, her golden blonde hair spilling out across us both. Carefully, I slipped out from beneath her, before putting some clothes on and grabbing Mother's grimoire from my bag. Pulling up a chair, I sat at the desk and opened the grimore. I had been spending a lot of time going through it, unfortunately, most of my efforts were for nought, but I persisted. Flicking through the many pages, I found two sections that interested me, the first was alchemy. At the same time, not the most glamorous form of magic, the ability to make potions, poisons, and transform one object into another all fell under it. The second was far more useful to me for now, magical runes, while more difficult due to having to draw the runes to exact specifications I would not need the complex ingredients that alchemy requires. The first rune I decided to practice was a self-repair rune, useful on clothes, furniture and especially weapons. I smiled, thinking about the possibility of enhancing my sword. Runes, as it turned out, were quite annoying to get right. The first thing you needed to understand was that the effectiveness of a rune relied on three things: the first being the quality of what you were putting the rune on, for example, leather would hold a better rune than cloth. The second thing that mattered was the accuracy of the rune, a few small mistakes or a smudged line could make a rune far less effective, whereas a broken line or major mistakes could cause disastrous effects, like the rune straight up exploding. The final thing that mattered was what you made the rune out of, technically you could use just about anything, charcoal, ink, ash, but the best by far was blood, this was mainly because you needed to infuse small amounts of magic into the rune, and blood bonded extremely well with magic. I was starting simple with the repair rune, using both my blood and a piece of paper, the first few attempts just fizzling out, but slowly over time, they got better, repairing the small tears I caused in the paper to slowly close.
I sighed and looked upon two hours' worth of work, dozens of sheets of paper littered the desk, each with the same rune on it, although with an increasing level of quality as they went along. I leant back, happy with the progress I had made. Looking back at my bed, I saw the form of Rebekah inside it. I smiled. She was truly stunning. It amazed me every time I saw her, even now, in a deep slumber, her beauty was unmatched. Standing, I stretched my back, although unable to get a stiff back anymore, it was still a habit one I doubted I would shake anytime soon. Closing my eyes to let my other senses take over, my hearing picked up a small group of people heading towards my room and those of my siblings, I clipped my sword to my belt and made my way to the door. Looking back at Rebekah, I smiled again, although we did not need to sleep, we all did out of habit. I never slept more than an hour or two at a time. Rebekah, though, loved her sleep and after last night's activities, I doubted she would get up for hours. I left the room quietly as the group arrived at the beginning of the hallway to the guest rooms, walking forward, I quickly scanned over the group, twelve armed and armoured guards following Tristan de Martel. "Do not be alarmed at our sudden arrival", his voice came out. I was not sure if they tried anything, all thirteen of them would be dead in moments. "I saw that you were the only one to carry a blade, you said it was for bandits," he questioned, a smile adorning his face. Nodding slowly, I allowed him to continue, "Well, we're just about to head outside to train, even a noble must keep their skills sharp, and was wondering if you wanted to join us"? He finished the smile still plastered on his face, I stepped forward and responded "I had hoped there would be someone here that I could spar with, as you said we nobles should keep our skills sharp". But why would he bring all these guards, I thought, to ask me to train? No, this was a show of force; it had to be.
We walked through the halls of the castle for minutes before arriving at a training yard, the sun had just begun to rise on the horizon casting a golden glow across most of the castle. The guards dispersed to begin their training while Tristan and I walked towards the middle of the yard, "swords first, then, daggers", Tristan stated. I nodded in agreement before pulling out my sword, before starting the fight. Tristan was no real threat to me; my skill far outweighs his. The real challenge for me was keeping my strength and speed at a human level. I had to control it, otherwise he would realise something was wrong. The first round was still going five minutes later. I saw multiple openings throughout the fight, but I knew that ending it too quickly may cause him to be insulted, so I stayed my hand until he began to show signs of fatigue. When he started to slow, I capitalised, knocking him to the ground. I bent down and offered him a hand up, part of me believing that he would not take it, but he did, surprising me. "Let's go again, daggers this time" Again, I nodded, glad that my hand had almost completely healed, apart from a perpetual ache, but I could use it again. I pulled out two of my daggers. We circle one another for a minute before he began, he was far better with daggers than with a sword, his skill such that I struggled, as I was holding back my strength and speed his skill made up any natural gaps between us. His style was chaotic but effective; he would throw a strike towards me, and when I went to block it, his dagger would no longer be there; instead, it would be coming at me from a different angle altogether. While I had seen this tactic before, it had always been with a single blade, usually a sword, two daggers, on the other hand, were quicker and more manoeuvrable, keeping me on my toes the entire fight.
The first spar with daggers ended after about fifteen minutes in a draw, Tristan had one dagger pressed into my stomach and another pressed at my shoulder, whereas my daggers had been aimed at his throat and one at the eye. Over the next hour and a half, I had become increasingly skilled with daggers and had beaten Tristan a few times. At this moment, we were both sitting, drinking a local wine and discussing life. He was in the middle of talking about the tax on the locals and a potential war brewing up north. I listened to every word he said, hoping for any useful information that I could use, but alas, not much was given. Eventually, we parted ways, one of the other guards having called him away.
Walking through the castle walls I thought back to our conversation and remembered him mentioning something about the wine we were drinking. Specifically, the fact that it was made locally by a small family-owned vineyard, the Count had visited it on a tour of his lands and found the hidden gem, leading to him buying all the castle's wine from there. Part of my plan for the future involved investments, for me to have a steady supply of money to build with, a small family-owned business may be the perfect place to start. Walking through the halls, I paused my thoughts as another familiar face approached me, that of Aroura de Martel, flanked by a contingent of guards. I closed the distance and took her hands, laying a kiss on her knuckles "Lady Aroura it is good to finally meet you". A smile spread across her face, "And you, lord Asmund, I saw you training with my brother. I have never seen anyone beat him using daggers, and your skill with a sword is unlike anything I have ever seen". Reading her face, the compliment seemed genuine, I returned her smile before she began to speak again. "Would you care to join me on a walk through the gardens, Lord Asmund"?
That was how I came to be walking through a field of lavender, Aroura by my side, followed by a dozen guards, I could feel their eyes drilling into me. I knew how our stay here was supposed to end, and what trouble it would spell nine hundred years later, I hoped that I could get both the Martel siblings on my side or at least under my control. That would solve two-thirds of the problem caused by the first three non-original vampires, the third being Lucien. My solution to that was simple: when the time came for us to leave, he would die by my hand. I believed I was making headway with Aroura, unlike her future counterpart, she was not insane, and I found myself quite enjoying our conversation. We talked for a while before I decided to head back. It was still early, but I wanted to keep practising magic, so I left Aroura and her guards to enjoy the morning.
Chapter 8
We had been at the Martel castle for two weeks now, and I had settled into a simple but effective routine. Every morning, I would wake early to practice my rune craft. So far, I had practically mastered the repair rune and had moved onto a more complex one to increase durability. After practising running, I would train with Tristan and his guards. I had become far better with daggers to the point that Tristan was rarely winning spars now. In return, rn I had been helping him improve his sword work. Moving on from training I would spend an hour walking through the gardens with Aroura, usually joined by Rebekah most mornings, then we would join the Martels for lunch. Most afternoons, while my brothers joined the Count in Hunting, I would continue training, this time only with my vampire powers; my control over fog and shadow had both increased extremely well. I had tried to fly, but the best I had gotten was a few seconds of hovering before crashing to the ground, and I had no look with shape shifting or controlling birds like Damon had, yet I did not give up. The rest of my days were spent doing odd things throughout the castle, usually cleaning up after my siblings, compelling witnesses so we kept a low profile and my nights were spent with Rebekah.
Over the last week, I had managed to convince Tristan to let me borrow a horse so I could leave the castle for a few days, of course keeping my true intentions a secret. I had set off alone in the early hours of the morning, heading towards the winery that Tristan told me of. From what he told me, it was a three-day ride from the castle, but I was planning to stop at a village on the way back, so it would probably be longer.
I rode during the day, sticking to a rough dirt path. The view was beautiful, most of the time, rolling green fields encompassed by rich green forests. At nig, ht I would set up a simple ca, mp allowing my horse to rest, although I would have liked to keep movi, ng I understood that it only had a limited amount of energy. Fortunately, when it rested, I had time to train, so the nights were not completely wasted. Towards the end of the third day I arrived at the destination that I had marked on my map, a small house sat adjacent to a large wooden warehouse and behind those sat fields of grapes as far as the eye could see. I stepped down off my horse, hitching it to a fence post before walking towards the house, knocking. I was greeted by a man who was probably in his late forties. "What brings you out here, traveller?" the man asked in a deep scratchy voice. "I heard you make wine," I responded, with a smile on my face. "You heard right, what of it?" the man spoke again, suspicion evident on his face "I was hoping to talk about investing in your winery, I have gold and silver", I continued. The suspicion had started to ease off his face, and at the mention of gold and silver, it disappeared entirely. He continued forward, gesturing for me to follow him. We walked over to the warehouse, and they continued inside, looking around in the dark room. My enhanced vision allowed me to see the large barrels on each wall, no doubt where they store the wine. There were twelve of them. I walked up to them, knocking on each. Only three were full; the rest were empty. "Why are only three full?" I asked. The man who had introduced himself as Garret was now holding a lantern "We do not have enough staff, but with more gold, we could hire more", he answered. "We should talk more inside my home, follow me". Doing as he said, I followed him back outside, then into the large house. We stopped at a small room with an oak table. "Sit",, he said, still wearing a greedy smile. "I would offer you a large pouch of gold and silver, in exchange for half of your profits each year," I offered. "How about ten per cent?" he offered back. This was going to take a while.
After some back and forth, we settled on twenty per cent of the profits a year going to me. After finalising our deal, I took out the pouch of gold I had gathered in the last year and slid it over to him. He took it in his hands before opening it, no doubt checking that it was real, a wider smile opened up on his face "Would you like to stay the night? We have a spare room and you're welcome to it". I thought for a second, I would like to get back as soon as possible, but it would not hurt to delay my travel slightly, so I accepted. He showed me to the room I would be staying in, while not as luxurious as the castle, it was still far better than the hovel I lived in. I lay down, shut my eyes and let sleep take me.
Waking suddenly to a knock at the door, I looked out the window, creeping over the hills, I must have slept longer than usual. The knock came again, answering, I saw a young woman, not the old man like I expected, "Father said to get you breakfast, it will be served soon" Nodding, I thanked her before heading back inside my room, before gathering my belongings and heading downstairs. Unlike yesterday when there was only the old man present, now a large group of people were present. Seeing me, the old man told me to sit, then started to introduce the seven people around the table, his children. I smiled and introduced myself to each of them before a plate of food was put before me, digging in. After we ate, most of the children went off to do jobs around the winery, and the old man left to get my horse, leaving me alone with the women who woke me. She stood doing the dishes in one corner. I was still hungry, and nobody would return for a few minutes at least, so I drew my fangs and closed the distance before sinking them into the woman. After I finished drinking my fill, I turned her around, slicing my finger, I let a small amount of my blood into her mouth, healing the wounds at her neck before compelling her to forget what happened.
The old man had gotten my horse ready, so I walked out to him, "Thank you for preparing my horse, and I shall send someone in my stead once a year to collect my share of the profits". He nodded before putting out his hand, shaking it. It allowed a small amount of my vampire strength to break through, just enough to make him understand that he should keep up his end of the deal. I left not long after that with directions to a small town about twenty miles away.
I entered the town about midday, and it was larger than I expected, dwarfing the village I grew up in. I stepped down from my horse and asked a young man for directions to a building that Tristan assured me would be here. Following the directions I was given, I came to a small building with a hand-painted sign of a necklace on the outside. I walked inside, laying on the shelves were all kinds of jewellery, and a small man sat behind a desk, obviously the owner. I looked around for a few minutes before finding a gold necklace with a ruby set into it. I took it to the counter and paid the cashier. I got back onto my horse, glad that I had found something to gift Rebekah so easily, then continued on my journey back to the castle.
I arrived back late on my seventh day away, a couple of guards waiting for me along with Finn, I got down off the horse before I started to tell Finn of my travels, leaving out the fact I bought part of a winery that could keep a secret for now. I walked down the halls with Finn at my side before two familiar faces came around the corner, Rebekah and Aroura, as they noticed me, both sped up their pace. When they reached me, Rebekah grasped me in a hug before seeming to remember that we were in the company of a Lady and stepping back. "It is good to see you both again," I said to them both. Before I or Rebekah could speak, Aroura spoke, "And you, Lord Asmund, I hope you had a safe journey" Smiling, I assured her that I did. We spoke for a while before Aroura and Rebekah left, and I parted ways with Finn before going to my room. I got inside a bath that had already been made, a servant I saw on the way past told me they heard I was back and had it made for me.
I stepped inside, allowing the heat to encompass me and thinking back to the last week, if only I had secured an income, I would have also progressed with my powers, even being able to progress my flight, although it was more hovering at the moment. I was knocked out of my thoughts by the door opening and closing quickly, as I turned the face of Rebekah appeared before me. She kissed me before joining me in the tub, before we went further I reached back and grabbed the necklace from my clothes pocket. Telling her to close her eyes and lean forward, I put the necklace around her neck before allowing her to open her eyes again. "Asmund, it's beautiful, thank you", she managed to get out before pressing another kiss to my lips.
Chapter 9
Walking through part of the castle I had not been to, I admired the tapestries hanging on the walls and the banners showing the sigil of House Martel. It had been a few weeks since I had returned from the winery, and in that short amount of time, Klaus had sired Lucien by mistake. Klaus had been meeting Aroura at night, Lucien assuming Klaus had betrayed him and got with Aurora behind his back, had made a scene, Tristan overheard and locked him in the dungeon to torture him, assuming he was attracted to Aroura. Klaus visited Lucien in the dungeons and, with a hidden knife, stabbed Klaus. In the following struggle, their blood mixed, healing Lucien, who, thinking he was now a vampire, went to kill Tristan. Unfortunately, one of Tristan's guards had got to Lucien, striking him down before he could reach his intended victim. Lucien rose as a full-fledged vampire hours later on a makeshift funeral pyre Klaus and Elijah had made for him. Since then, Elijah had also sired Tristan in the hope that Tristan would be the first in a cabal of civilised vampires who would work to better this world, named the strix by Elijah. Rebekah had also sired her first vampire, that being Aroura, who had tricked Rebekah into feeding her her blood to heal from an apparent suicide attempt. Aroura, now having vampire blood in her system, flung herself off the castle walls and was reborn as a vampire. I had intended to stake Lucien through the heart as soon as the opportunity arose. Still, unfortunately, he had not left Klaus's idea since he became a vampire, leaving me unable to end a threat before it began.
As I walked through the empty hall, a large bang erupted throughout the castle. The faces of Finn and Rebekah emerged in front of me "Brother, we must run, father is at the castle gates". Seeing the terror in their eyes, I knew that what they said was true, "gather as much of our things as you can and get ready to leave. I shall get the rest of our siblings", I responded calmly. "They already know, they are preparing to leave through some tunnels in the dungeon". No, I sent them to gather what they could before we left, then I walked towards the Count's room, his guards attempted to block me, which I solved easily with compulsion before forcing the door open, snapping the lock with ease. Walking through the ruined doorway, the beady eyes of Count de Martel met my face, "What is the meaning of this? We are under attack. How did you get past my guards"? Smiling, I answered none of his questions before drawing closer to him. As I approached, he must have sensed my ill intention, as he threw a clay pot at me, which shattered on my face. Smiling all the more, I seized his head with my hands, "You should be more careful where you allow your eyes to wander, Count. Allow me to help with that," I whispered just loud enough for him to hear before driving my clawed thumbs into his eyes. Screams echoed through the room as the Count tried to escape my death grip but he was too weak to even make me falter. Realising that I was taking perhaps a bit too long killing the Co,unt I dropped him to the ground before sinking my hand into his back and pulling out his spine, as I left the dying Co,unt I crushed his head beneath my foot, oot then left. The guards I left outside were still there, oblivious to the fact that I had just murdered the man they swore to protect. I sped past them, going straight to the dungeon, straight to my siblings. When I arrived, I saw all of them with worried looks on their faces. They were shaken by the recent turn of events. We had got complacent, and it backfired on us.
Looking around, I noticed three faces missing. I knew that in the show, the first three non-original vampires were compelled by Elijah, but I hoped that he had not got to them yet. "Where are Aroura, Tristan and Lucien" I voiced my concerns. "Gon, my brother, I learnt of a new power of ours, the ability to control the mind. As I sent them a note, pretending to be u, along with three other people, we turned. Hopeful, they will buy us some time, and Mikael will go after them," Elijah answered my doubts. That's unfortunate, I thought I had hoped to kill Lucien. "We should go", Klaus spoke up, all my siblings in agreement, but I thought otherwise. "You should, I will buy you some time and meet up with you later, if I don't keep him busy, then he will be too close behind us". Seeing the look of surprise cross my siblings' faces, I thought they might argue, but only Rebekah seemed to disagree with me. We did not have the time to argue, so I told them to run, not before promising my sister that I would return soon. With tears in her eyes, she left, following the rest of our family.
Dashing back down the corridors, compelling every guard that came my way to follow, I quickly arrived at the courtyard. I had gotten the guards to wait in a hall, makeshift wooden weapons in hand. Just as I arrived, the heavy wooden gate gave way, crashing inwards, and the face of Mikael, my father, came into view. "Son," he spoke, hatred filling his voice, "where is the bastard?" he spat, the rage filling his voice. "Why would I tell you that, so you can kill him? Klaus may be bad, but you are far worse," I responded without a hint of emotion. "He murdered your mother, surely that must anger you, make you hate him as I do". Shaking my head at his response and drawing my blade, "You always hated him, and let's be honest here, father, after you kill him, what then? I know you will do the same for the rest of us. I can not and will not allow that, so let's see who is the better warrior after all". I brought my sword up as he drew his, not even trying to deny my words. Instead, he charged me, our blades met in a violent clash, sending sparks throughout the air. Mercilessly, I hacked and slashed at him, but he was too skilled to suffer injuries that easily, deflecting each of my strikes with little effort. He struck back when the opportunity arose, but I was just as skilled, keeping each blow away from my body with ease. Our blades locked together, er, turning this into a battle of strength, which was unfortunately a battle I could not win. I knew that he had an enhanced version of the spell that turned us into vampires. I felt a stab at my stomach, looking down, I saw a dagger piercing into my body, "I thought you were above such tactics, father", I spat venom lacing my words, in the single moment of distraction my words gave him, I delivered a headbutt into his nose, knocking him back. Grabbing the dagger in my stomach, I pulled it out, launching it back at Mikael, who side-stepped it with ease. He came forward again with a powerful overhead strike. Matching his strike with my own, I felt the vibrations course through my body, and by the look on his face, he was similarly affected, but neither of us stopped. We kept at it, each strike brutally powerful, as I defended against one of his strikes, the worst happened, my sword, the blade that had been by my side for my entire life, cracked, then shattered with a second strike. Rage filled me, as I drew my claws, I slashed at him and delivered a kick to his chest, he flew backwards, crashing into a wall with enough force to make it bulge outwards. As he stood back up, I threw myself into the air, my flight taking me straight at, my now stunned father's surprise at my newfound ability on his face. His blade went through me, but I ignored the pain instead digging my claws deep into his shoulders and raising us both into the air, then dived towards a hallway. As we crashed, the two dozen guards I had left pounced, driving makeshift wooden stakes into Mikael, who roared in rage and started to cut them down. Their distraction gave me a moment of rest, which I gladly took before diving back at Mikael, delivering slashes all over his already injured body. My hand grasped his throat, and I started to strangle. At first, he fought, unable to accept his defeat. As I felt more and more magic enter my body his skin started turning grey and his resistance faded until he could no longer move. I stood all but one guard lay dead around us, searching Mikael for the white oak stake I found nothing, shit I thought he must have hid it. I walked to the one guard still alive, he barely clung to life and I kneeled next to him, with a quick slash I opened my wrist, then forced it into his mouth. His injuries started healing much to his shock, "What's your name"? I asked the stunned guard, "Louis, my Lord," he responded, shock still evident in his voice. "Well, Louis, how would you like to live for centuries to come?" disbelief spread across his face before he slowly nodded. I then snapped his neck.
When Louis woke a few hours later, I handed him a chalice of blood. As he drank with urgency, I watched. "What next, my lord?" he spoke up after fining the chalice. "We get rid of him" I nodded at the chained body of Mikael. With the help of Louis, I threw Mikael into a coffin, then onto a cart before we rode out towards a local river. We got off our horses and looked around, checking the river. I found that it was not as deep as I would have liked, so instead we settled for a cave system nearby. Towards the bottom of the cave, over three hundred metres down, we left the coffin containing Mikael before heading back up. The cave system was on the bank of the river, giving me an idea, we had brought shovels with us just in case we had to bury him, so we set out to divert a small stream of the river. It took almost a week for us to completely divert part of the river into the cave, but once we did, it started to fill quickly. "Louis, you should go further into France, set up a life. I need to find my siblings. Once I do, I will call for you to join us, but until then, live well, friend", I said before handing him a pouch of gold I salvaged from the Martel castle. He nodded before shaking my hand and setting off with his horse.
Looking around, I breathed a sigh of relief. Mikael was dealt with for now, my siblings were heading for Italy, and I would join them soon. First, though, I needed to get my sword reforged. I had gathered every fragment possible from the castle and hoped that it could be remade. Then I would carve runes into it to increase its durability, and put a self-repair rune on it, hopefully that would be enough to ensure it did not get broken again.
I set off my horse still having the cart attached to it, a few chests strewn about on top of it. Each chest contained whatever riches I could shove into it. I smiled, thinking about how we would live in Italy, free from the madness of our father chasing us.
Chapter 10
It took me six months to track down my siblings, who had set up in a little town in Italy. Elijah was already starting to work his way up in the town's political system, and he had compelled us into owning a small villa. When I arrived back all of them seemed both glad and surprised. After reuniting with them, I shared the details of my fight with Mikael and his subsequent defeat. At first, they did not believe I had defeated them, but it soon became clear I was not lying. I then shared the news of the last couple of months of travelling and revealed the riches I had obtained from the Martel castle. Although only about a quarter of the riches were left after I chose to invest in a few more businesses along the way, including a bank and a shipping company. After telling them of the last few months, they revealed what they had been up to. According to them, after fleeing from Mikael, they had arrived in Italy quite quickly. Soon after they arrived, they had managed to influence important people in the area, allowing them to compel one to give them a villa. They then also informed me that Klaus and Elijah had discovered a group of vampire hunters led by a man called Alexander. The brotherhood of the five, well that could complicate my plans, and although I tried to convince my siblings to just outright kill them, Elijah thought that he could glean information from them. Rebekah also revealed the relationship that we had to the others during an argument with Klaus, much to the shock of all but Elijah, who already knew, surprisingly none seemed to be bothered and since only Kol would mention it often, usually in an attempt to tease Rebekah.
Today was the day I met Alexander. My family had organised a feast in honour of those who protected the townsfolk from savage vampires. Unlike the show, I had noticed that there were six of them, not five, probably due to my being present now. I was sitting next to Rebekah quietly examining each of them as they rattled on about their mission to destroy all vampires, ignoring them all as I already knew everything about them, they are six supernatural vampire hunters with enhanced, reflexes, strength and endurance, they could also not be compelled making them slightly harder to deal with. After the feast, I walked with my brothers Finn and Elijah, Rebekah clinging to my arm, and a vampire clinging to each of my brothers' arms. Finn had met a young woman called Sage, whom he quickly turned. Likewise, Elijah had also turned a young woman called Aya, who now walked with him. "We should kill them now before they get too strong, they will gather support the longer they live", I spoke quietly to my siblings in our native Nordic language. "We could learn a lot about them, hem," Elijah responded in the same dialect. "I agree with Asmund, while they cannot kill, they pose a threat to all other vampires". Finn responded, siding with me. Elijah quieted for a while before once again speaking, "One week to glean whatever information I can from them", before Finn interrupted, agreeing to his demands.
It was a few days later when Elijah had invited them to stay in the spare rooms in the villa, all six of them under our roof, and no doubt they would make their move tonight. Unfortunately for me, I did not have a sword. I had sent it to one of the best blacksmiths to be reforged, and it would not be back in my hands for at least a few weeks. This left me with only my hatchet and a couple of daggers, though these would be more than enough to deal with the hunters. I purposefully stayed awake that night a dagger in my hand, my other hand wrapped around Rebekah. While thinking, a creak sounded as the door opened, two men, Alexander and another, crept inside. Instantly, I was up, eyes locked on them both, "I was wondering when you two would show up," I said as a wide smile crossed over my face. Both men ran towards me, unfortunately, although they were enhanced, they were still nothing to me. A single push with my free hand sent Alexander flying. The other man attempted to drive his dagger into my heart, but I just grabbed his wrist and twisted, snapping it like a twig. As he started to scream, I claimed a hand over his mouth, "Shush, if you wake Rebekah from her sleep, I assure you all of our fates will be worse than death", I whispered to him while laughing. I pushed him to the ground as Alexander ran in, so foolish I thought before using my speed to dart around the room, going far too fast even for their enhanced vision to track. As I bolted around the room, I drew my claws. Every time I went past one of them, I slashed at them, purposefully keeping all the wounds I inflicted non-lethal. Alexander pushed himself to his feet, blood covered every part of his body, and he could not even raise his arms as I had slashed through tendons so precisely, I felt a strange energy around him. Feeling the energy around him, I started to pull on it instinctively. At first, nothing much happened, but soon enough, I saw small droplets of his blood start to move around. I could control blood, the realisation hit me like a freight train, I would continue this later, but for now, I had prey to kill. I disappeared from both men's sights, slipping into shadow before appearing behind them. The dagger still in one of my hands, I met the man's shoulder, whose name I did not know, as I dragged along his throat, he died, letting out a wet gurgle as he choked on his own blood. Alexander turned around as fast as he could manage. When he was face to face with me, I grabbed his skull, lifting him off the ground and slowly applying pressure, crushing his head slowly, before dropping him unceremoniously to the ground.
Klaus crashed through the door a moment later, covered in blood, a sword in his hand, and mad fury written on his face. I looked up at him from my seat on the bed, seeing the mad fury on his face, I could not help smiling, "Brother, you got here a bit late", I exclaimed. Before either of us could speak another word, Rebekah's voice piped up, "Would you both shut up? Some of us are trying to sleep" She said before looking around and seeing the carnage "What the hell happened here?" she continued. "It seems Elijah's good friends, the hunters, decided to make their move", I explained to her.
It took us days to clean all the blood and flesh off the walls, that's before we even began to repair the damage that Klaus and I caused in repelling the attack. As it turns out, during the attack, the only ones who were not daggered were I and Rebekah. With Klaus being immune to the daggers, he got back up and went on a rampage. Luckily, after the attack, I had gotten all six daggers and thrown them into a river. Soon after the attack, both Klaus and I were hit with the hunter's curse, causing us both to fall into suicidal madness.
Forty years was how long it took for me to recover from the hunter's curse; luckily, the rest of my siblings managed to keep Klaus and me from killing ourselves or each other. Klaus remained with the curse for another twelve years, seeing what I went through first-hand was horrifying. I can only imagine how bad it would have been without our siblings there by our side.