The hidden Salvatore, she called herself. A secret she had so carefully kept over the centuries.
She enjoyed being kept a mystery. Enjoyed the hunt and the looks on people's faces when they realized her true identity.
Decade after decade she built...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Death is a looming shadow."
━━━━━━♡♤♡━━━━━━
"The vampire to end all vampires." Esther finished.
Yeah, because Mikael did that so well.
Mikael was a one thousand-year-old original vampire with a white oak stake. He had tried to kill his children for centuries and failed. And she thought that turning a failed vampire-hunter, high school history teacher, into a vampire would solve the problem—even if he were a baby original? A plus planning on her part. Applause.
"You can't create another original." Elena warned like it was an impossible thing. "What if he turns out to be an even bigger monster than your children?"
They're not monsters. The thought was like a reflex. It surprised me more than it should have. Had I spent so much time with them that I forgot everything they'd done?
Something was clinically wrong with me.
"He won't," Esther stated. "Now that he's embraced his darkest aspect. His hatred for them will become more pure and uncompromising. In death, that hatred will be magnified." I could tell she was from a different time based on the way she said each and every one of those words. And ever so slightly, I sensed the hesitance in her voice. She was scared. Maybe it was because of the spell that she was about to do, or maybe she grieved her children. I didn't know.
"You don't know that. You don't know anything about him." Elena said lowly, clenching her fists at her sides.
Except that wasn't him. Not anymore.
"That is where you are wrong." The original witch said, raising her chin. "Each time he died with that ring, during his brief journey into death, I was there on the other side. I spoke to him. I nurtured him. Knowing that every death brought him closer to his true self."
"How are you any better?" I finally spoke. My voice was void of any emotion. "You say your children are monsters, turning and killing innocent people into vampires." I scoffed, "And yet here you are, turning an innocent man—who never asked for any of this—into the exact thing you loathe us all for being."
I glared. Speaking once more. "That doesn't seem fair."
"This version of him—"
"Yes, exactly. This version of him. The version you manipulated him into being. You wanted him to become a vampire, so now he wants that to."
"Come. Let us begin." she turned away and walked side by side with the man that was meant to be Alaric. I didn't know why I bothered. It wasn't like I'd actually be able to reason with her.
