Sire Lines

Chapter 1

"Rebekah! Come back!" the girl called. She chased after her blonde friend and tugged on her arm to turn her around. She was crying.

"How could you, Amelia?" she spat. "I knew something was going on with you. You're always in my home, learning herbal medicine with my mother, just so you could be close to my brother."

"That's not what happened."

"It's obvious it is!" she yelled, catching everyone's attention.

She looked around and then back at Rebekah, unable to respond. She scoffed and stormed away, slamming the wooden door into her large house. Amelia didn't dare follow her or she'd be kicked out so she lingered by the well.

"Don't mind her, Amelia," her friend, Tatia, came to say. "She's overreacting. She'll come around later."

"She has every right to be mad."

"Tell me exactly what happened, then maybe, her emotions wouldn't sound so bad."

"Niklaus was accidentally cut by my brother and he came to me to be fixed," Amelia said. "We were in his mother's red shed and as I was cleaning up the blood, he told me something."

"What was it?"

"I cannot tell you. It's a secret."

"Okay. Then what happened?"

"Niklaus," she began, pulling away from the stoned well, "he kissed me and Rebekah walked in on us."

"He kissed you?" she inquired, her voice filled with malice or jealousy. "That's a weird way to show his affection. He couldn't get you some lavender?"

"That's not the point Tatia," Amelia snapped. "The point is, she believed all of this studying with Esther made me a snake into his affection."

"You know that is her dearest brother besides Kol."

"Yes, I know. I had no kind of intentions towards him and you know that," she said. "I had a feeling he did when he found some interest with his mother and her potions."

"Just to get closer to you."

"Maybe."

"So it's not your fault, it's Niklaus's," Tatia justified. "Tell her that and let's hope she believes you."

"I will," Amelia nodded. She looked at her friend and her curly hair for a moment and found her smiling at Rebekah's other brother, Elijah. "Stop that or she'll have your head too."

"Don't say that," Tatia laughed, pushing her arm.

"I have to go, I'll see you tonight."

"Farewell."

Amelia headed for her family's home in the corner of the village. She could smell food being made and went to the back to see her brother, Isaac, skinning an animal as her father tossed shrubs into the fire. Usually, her mother would be the one cooking but she died two winters ago. Her family had been holding onto each other for support and Amelia needed it the most. She was thankful for Esther for taking her in and teaching basic home training but things changed when she found out the truth. She was a witch.

The entire family had known but not the rest of the village. Most people went to Ayana who did most of the spiritual healings in the community. It was a major secret to keep but not as big as the one Niklaus had told her.

Before his kiss, mainly a distraction because he knew someone was watching and listening, he told her what he was going to do that night. He wanted to take his brother, Henrik, and go watch the shape-shifting men in the next village. He said that they only changed when the moon was the ripest which was once a month. He had invited her to tag along but she knew it was a bad idea rejected it. She even tried to talk him out of it but he already had the idea in his mind.