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...
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"They called him dangerous. He was my safe."
━━━━━━♡♤♡━━━━━━
THE QUIET CAME and went like the whisper of summer breezes. The anger and grief waxed and waned like the phases of the moon. And the world around me came crashing down like a great and mighty wave.
I sat, my elbows resting on my knees and my head buried in my hands, fighting the effects of losing my magic that still plagued me even hours later. The chills seemed never ending, and the echoing silence in my bones was a deafening crack within my thoughts.
But that was not my concern at the moment. No, my thoughts were anywhere but on the state of my wrecked self.
I stared at the man in front of me. At the vacant look in his eyes that sent spikes of ice into my blood. He seemed so...torn. As though he was fighting the grief that threatened to unearth the furious mask he always seemed to have in place.
If I weren't a vampire I swore I wouldn't have noticed the subtle shake in his hands. Or the soft red of his eyes that told me he was fighting tears.
Truth be told, I did not know what to do. I had never learned how to comfort someone in their grief—had never needed to—and I didn't think any of my words could help. Not without my magic at least.
I had never even faced my own grief when it came to those I had lost.
But...I wanted to. I wanted to help him. Comfort him.
It was an odd feeling, that.
I found that I didn't hate it. Not as I would have twenty-four hours ago.
Suddenly the notion didn't seem so scary anymore.
It didn't seem so awful to be with Klaus. So terrifying to face the fact I did care about him. That I...maybe, just maybe—and it was a far-fetched idea—more than just cared about him.
But still...the possibility did not seem so scary.
Not in the wake of Kol's death and the harsh reality check that had slapped me in the face.
Even immortals could die.
Even immortals could leave and never come back.
I did not want to live my life wondering of possibilities and futures that I could have had and never did. I wouldn't be confined by worries or thoughts that—in the grand scheme of my immortal existence—did not truly matter.
It was this thought that sent me moving. Standing from my seat on the couch and walking toward the hybrid where he sat. He did not even look up. It was as though he didn't even realize the world was moving around him.
