Ch. 3

Looking down at the ring set with enchanted lapis lazuli and then up into the unforgiving sun, I couldn't help but smile. The smile turned into a ferocious grin when I patted my vest and felt the folded piece of parchment upon which Esther had written down her new daylight ring spell. Given that the full moon was only three days away, I doubted Esther would survive long enough to miss it.

To my left, I found the beautiful form of my traveling companion beside me. Tatia, the Petrova Doppleganger that had given her blood to turn myself and my family into immortal monsters. If I'd left her behind, she would have died at Elijah's hand and Esther would have covered it up to keep her son free of guilt. What I had planned for her, well one could argue that she had a better chance with me than she did back in the village with Elijah.

"Tatia," I called to her after one more moment of silence. She turned to me almost mechanically, and I smiled at the terror behind her eyes. She so very clearly wished nothing more than to run or scream or anything but stand there helpless. Unfortunately for her, compulsion had her body wrapped around my finger.

Sighing, I reached up and brushed a hand through her dark hair, looking down into her equally dark eyes. "Wrist," I ordered and her arm automatically came up. She was shaking rather badly as I leaned in and slowly slid my fangs into the offered wrist, before beginning to drink. I closed my eyes and strived for that balance, for the control I sorely lacked at this point.

Growling I pulled myself away violently after a few moments, holding her up as she stumbled from dizziness. Biting into my own skin quickly, I grimaced as I brought the wound to her lips and she drank eagerly because of an earlier compulsion. She healed quickly, completely rejuvenated in just a few moments.

I grinned and tilted her head up to look at me, "Mmmm, you look like you want to say something darling. Go ahead but remember to keep your voice down."

Her eyes searched mine for a long moment and she gulped convulsively before speaking with a rasp, "W-why are you doing this to m-me?"

Chuckling softly, I can't help but pet her hair again. She really is a beautiful creature, but even though I'd only been a vampire for a short time, it was all too easy to view humans as little more than animals. They were pets at best, a food source at worst.

I pretended to consider her words while I stroke her dark hair for a moment longer, before answering, "I could say I was saving your life. My brother Elijah cares about you very much. However, like me, he is now a monster. His love and desire for you would have been subverted by the hunger he has lost control to. He would have killed you."

I paused for a moment to let her assimilate that and then grinned, continuing, "But honestly, I mostly just wanted you for myself. I needed a source of blood and I wanted beautiful company. You provide both and I believe your beauty might even be helping me to slowly learn control. I have great incentive not to drain you dry."

She grimaced at that, "B-but you're killing me. I can feel the shadow of death every time you bite into my wrist."

I smirk at that, bringing up the wrist I'd just bitten into and licking the remnants of blood off her healed skin.

"Not true darling. My blood heals you, which is why I have compelled you to drink when I offer it. If I wished to, I could drink from you every few minutes so long as I made you drink from me. But I don't desire a feast, I desire to learn control. I have no desire to murder every human I run across after all," I explained patiently.

I paused for a moment before continuing when it was clear she had no more questions for the moment, "It also helps that if you do die while my blood is in your body, you will not truly die. You will be reborn into a vampire like myself and my family."

Her eyes widen and I grin at the horror I see there. Now she has questions, "This… this curse can be spread? You have infected me?"

Chuckling lightly, I nod, "Do not fear my dear. The chances of you surviving to become an actual vampire are slim. After returning from death you will need to find human blood within a day or you will die a true death. And even if you do manage that, the sun will become your mortal enemy. If you cannot acquire shelter during the day, it will burn you up until nothing but a charred corpse remains."

She took this in and I could see how it affected her. She recognized that she was doomed. I was surprised when I saw that realization harden into resolve instead of causing her to break down. She turned her chin up at me, clenching her jaw, "Do your worst demon. You will not succeed in tearing me down, and if I do become like you, I will end it myself."

I couldn't help it, my grin stretched across my face until I probably looked terrifying with how hard I was smiling. She looked taken aback by my reaction as I cupped her face in my hands and leaned in until we were just shy of bumping noses. "There it is," I murmured as she froze under my hands, "The Petrova fire. I admit, for a long moment I was afraid you would not have it."

I claimed her mouth then, kissing her roughly as I held her in place. She struggled as much as my compulsion allowed her to, yelping when one of my fangs broke the surface of her lip, and the kiss turned bloody. Unfortunately, this was not the right move on my part. A moment passed and my mouth slid down to her neck and a moment after that the small bits of control I'd managed to obtain over the hunger were gone.

With a groan, I released Tatia's lifeless body, letting it fall to the ground as I wiped my mouth. I looked down at her body for a long silent moment before flashing over to the nearest tree and slamming a fist into and through it.

"Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT, DAMNIT!" I raged about the small clearing, tearing chunks out of trees and throwing a super-powered temper tantrum as I cursed my complete lack of control. Eventually I plopped down on my ass, staring at Tatia for several long minutes. I certainly wasn't in love with this girl, but I also knew I felt a combination of lust and affection for the beautiful doppleganger.

It seemed that lust combined with my hunger was more than enough to shred any control I could lay claim to. It seemed that learning not to kill my food was going to take longer than a few days of practice. With a growl I rose to my feet and walked over to Tatia's body. Hefting it onto my shoulder easily, I blurred out of the destroyed clearing, heading towards the human settlement I'd been smelling and hearing for the last hour.

When Tatia awoke again, she found herself sputtering as I forced human blood down her throat via the arm of a young man. "W-what?!" She choked out, before her fangs were suddenly out and a moment later she was latched onto the poor guy, draining him dry. Only once he was dead was she able to pull herself away, scrambling backwards with her eyes wide in horror.

"By the gods, no…" She whispered before her gaze focused on me in all my bloody glory. I'd gone on a bit of a massacre since arriving in this small village and my clothes hadn't really survived it unscathed. A moment later her expression twisted with ugly anger and she was using her new found speed to launch herself at me, tackling me to the ground and using her fingers like claws to scratch at my skin.

With a snarl of my own I captured her wrists in my hands and tumbled with her until I had her body trapped beneath mine. Pinning her there, I caught her gaze in my own and initiated the compulsion, "Calm down." She almost instantly relaxed under me, her only movement the heaving of her chest as she gasped at the exertion she'd just put her new body through.

Her eyes were wide though as she stared up at me, "H-how? Even now you can still control me with your words? Am I not a monster as well?" She actually sounded angry about it, as if the one thing good about becoming a vampire had been snatched from her almost instantly. Which to be fair, that was exactly what happened wasn't it?

Grinning down at her, I can't help but brush the errant hair from her face. She'd grown quite disheveled in our fighting. I had to restrain myself from tearing her clothes off then and there and taking her against the hard floor of the hut, but I rejected that out of hand. I was now immortal and I had a thousand years to learn how to seduce women without use of force. I disliked the idea of beginning that eternity by raping my first creation.

I sighed before finally speaking, "I understand your confusion love. Yes, you are like me now. But unlike you, I am one of the originals. We have a bit more power than those who will come after us. Of which, you are the first I believe."

She clenches her jaw at that. "Not for long," She bites out, "I will end this horrid existence myself as soon as possible."

I couldn't help but frown at that, the idea of my first creation killing itself just didn't sit well with me. At the same time, forcing her to live forever because of my lack of control did feel wrong in a way…

Gritting my teeth I settled on a course of action after several minutes of contemplation, "No you will not." Leaning in and initiating compulsion once more I spoke carefully, "You will do your absolute best to survive for the next one hundred winters. At the end of that time you may choose to end your life if you still wish to. You will not plot against my family or myself and you will present yourself to me for orders if ever you run across me. Do you understand?"

Nodding jerkily, Tatia succumbs to the mind control once more. I smile pleasantly in response, taking one last moment to explore her beautiful features before finally releasing her and moving away.

"Unfortunately, it's time for us to part ways love. In two days I will become a wolf for the first time and if you are near me, I might feel tempted to tear you apart. There are several humans left alive in this village, so I am not leaving you without food. Take care of yourself Tatia. I can no longer watch over you," I made myself out as some sort of guardian, and I could see from the incredulous look on her face that she thought I was full of shit. I grinned down at her and then I left in a blur of vampire speed.

-x-X-x-

The transformation I went through on that first full moon was simultaneously horrifically painful and immensely liberating. It turns out that breaking every bone in one's body does in fact hurt quite a lot. Vampire healing doesn't do much to dull the pain of werewolf transformation. But once I was the wolf, I felt so incredibly free. The power at my disposal, the strength in my animal body, both managed to leave me in awe.

I didn't find any humans during that full moon, but the animals of the forest I'd been wandering through suffered greatly for my existence that night. By the morning I'd bagged enough kills to feed any of the human settlements one would find in this time for a good six months. Not that any humans would have been able to make use of my kills considering the pieces I felt obligated to tear them all into.

At the same time, there were some definite downsides to the transformation. I could not do much besides kill and slaughter as a wolf. After I transformed back, it took me an hour to find the spot I left my clothes in, given how much I'd roamed and hunted in the night. At the end of the day, being able to become a wolf at will would be useful if and when I encountered wolves, witches, and vampires but I'd happily remain in humanoid form the majority of the time.

Such thoughts turned out to be pointless however, when a week later I felt a sudden pain in my chest, and a strange weakness overtook me. I had been wrong it seemed when I thought I could flee the curse. I could feel the magic as it bound my wolf side, could feel as the option to transform was locked away from my reach. Esther hadn't bound Klaus personally, she'd bound the bloodline created from her coupling with the werewolf.

I raged over it for months, considering the fact that Tatia's doppleganger blood could have in fact ended the curse, if I hadn't killed and turned her in my lack of control. In the end, I came down from my rage after massacring more than one human settlement. It seemed I would share my brother's fate, a thousand years of being cursed.

To be fair, I had no desire to actually sire more hybrids. I liked being one of two immortal all powerful hybrids. Now I was just an immortal powerful vampire. It seemed that when it came time to, I would help Klaus in completing the ritual, help him sacrifice the doppleganger and unlock our true power. Until then though, I'd be enjoying my eternal life.

-x-X-x-

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