The Other Mikaelson- Book 2

Chapter VII

Vienna, Austria. 1642

"Leon, are you sure you want this?" Keira asked.

"I want to be with you forever," said the boy she stood beside. He was barely 17, tall, with shaggy caramel hair and brown eyes. He was the last boy Keira ever loved- 400 years ago.

"My brothers would kill us both," Keira replied.

"My father has a very powerful reputation, I'm sure your brothers would not risk losing his favor. And you cannot be killed. Rest assured, I believe we are safe," Leon replied. Keira smiled, unaware her brother Niklaus was listening from a different room.

The Original vampire picked up a goblet from the table next to her and pulled out a small knife. She held her wrist over the cup and made a deep cut, confusing her lover.

"I told you you weren't ready," Keira said. "Do not worry, I will heal fast. Drink this."

She handed Leon the cup with her blood inside it. "Why do you give me this?"

"Have you forgotten already? To transition into a vampire, you must die with vampire blood in your system. That is my blood, the blood of a vampire, and that is the only way I know of, so it is what we must do," said the vampire. As Leon drank the blood, he seemed uncomfortable.

"Will I be used to this eventually?" he asked, finishing his drink.

"Of course. You have eternity to do so," Keira replied. Then she sighed. "This is your last chance to change your mind. Once I kill you, there is no going back."

"I'm ready," Leon said. "Does dying hurt?"

"You mustn't die naturally if you are to transition today. So yes, your death with likely hurt. How would you like to do so?" Keira asked, putting her knife down.

"Whatever is the cleanest option. I wish not my father comes home to find our carpets stained with blood," Leon said. Keira leaned in and kissed him, but pulled away barely three seconds after.

"Good things never happen to my sister nor my lovers," she said.

"Then I shall fight through the bad."

"Last chance to change your mind. Last chance to decide this isn't what you wish," she said, putting her hands on his neck.

"I wish to be with you forever," Leon said. Keira sighed and closed her eyes. Her loved did so too, and she snapped his neck.

When he awoke almost an hour later, Leon found himself leaning against a wall, when Keira entered the room with a teenage village girl.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"You must feed on a human to complete the transition, or you will die. Don't worry, I'll teach you how to heal them, and how to make sure they don't remember what we've done to them," she said. Her lover decided she was correct, as the girl did not seem frightened at all. He watched as the whites of Keira's green eyes turned red, and veins appeared under her eyes. She bit into the girl's wrist with her fangs and held the blood to Leon's mouth. As he drank, the features of his eyes changed to be the same as Keira's, and when he lifted his head, fangs grew inside his mouth.

"This feels amazing," he said. "E-everything is brighter. I feel so much happier. I feel stronger, and more alive!"

"Ironic, considering you are dead," Keira laughed. "Do what I do."

She showed him her wrist, which was healed, and then bit into it again. As he did the same, she gestured at him to give the girl vampire blood, which healed her wound almost immediately.

"Now, look into her eyes, and focus. Tell her to forget everything she isn't supposed to know, that she spent an hour reading, and to go home," Keira said. Leon obliged, and as the girl left, he stood and smiled.

"You are going to teach me about this," he asked.

"Of course. Starting with this, follow me," Keira said, before speeding to the other end of the door.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Leon laughed.

"Push off with every ounce of strength you have," she said playfully. Leon followed quickly.

That night, Keira took Leon to have dinner with her older brothers, Elijah, Niklaus, and Kol, as well as her older sister, Rebekah.

"Nice boy," Rebekah said, examining her sister's lover. "He appears to make you less violent."

"That might be me, not him," said Kol, referencing how it was his unofficial job to make sure his youngest sister did not kill random people. 

Nik sat there in silence, before furrowing his eyebrows. When dinner was over, just as everyone were pushing their chairs in, he spoke "Sister, did you turn him?!?" he asked angrily.

Keira looked down for a moment. "Possibly?"

"Why the bloody hell would you do that?" Nik exclaimed angrily.

"I wanted to be with him forever," Keira said quietly, fearing her brother's wrath.

Sensing his sister's fear, Elijah spoke up. "Niklaus, maybe it would do to-"

"No," Nik said. "He's not good enough. He will only rip out your heart, Keira. I suggest you do so first."

Leon stared at him. "Do you not know your sister? I understand where you're coming from for me, but please understand, I would never, and neither would she."

Nik glared at him. "Then I will do it for her," he said. Before any of them could react, Nik sped towards the newborn vampire and plunged his hand into his chest.

"No!" Keira screamed as Nik pulled out Leon's heart. The nobleman's son fell to the ground, grey and desiccating. Keira looked up at her brother, crying. "Why would you do that?!?"

"He wasn't good enough for you," Nik said. "But, since you seem to love him so much, it appears he's given you his heart. Here! Take it!" He threw his sister her lover's heart, which she let fall to the ground. Having watched the entire scene, Kol held his sister back as she angrily lunged to attack Nik.

As she got out of her brother's grip, she attacked Niklaus, who was quick to defend himself.

"Well, best you join Finn now!" he said, swiftly pulling out a silver dagger and driving it through Keira's heart. A tear ran down her face as she also turned grey and desiccated. As grey veins ran up her face, she gave her brother one last look of betrayal, before falling into Elijah's arms, dead.

The last thing she heard before losing consciousness- "Don't pull it out if you do not wish to join her. She needs to learn her lesson," Nik said, as if there was a lesson to learn for her.

(Back in New Orleans, 2011)

"You realize you just shared that entire memory with me, right?" Hayley asked. Keira, having not realized she had been reliving it, or that she had shared it, inhaled sharply.

"I- I'm just gonna go," she said abruptly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to share that with you."

"Your brother ripped out someone's heart just because you loved him?" Hayley said.

"Precisely why I choose not to love. Better for everyone's physical health if they wish to live," Keira replied. "I'm off to bed."

Inside her room, where she found her old journals, Keira realized just how angry she was at Niklaus, and just how many people she loved he had killed before she had stopped loving. Every single century she went undaggered, he had killed at least two people she cared about. Then she collapsed on her bed and fell asleep, unaware he brother had listened to and seen everything she had shared with Hayley, but completely aware that he would never apologize, nor feel any remorse.