The Red Queen | Lucien Castle & Tristan de Martel

Chapter 6

Apparently, the ball had ended horrendously.

"So Damon Salvatore is still alive despite having picked a fight and snapped your neck?" Vivalda nearly threw the bag of spinach at Kol. "Hello, why do any of you let people live after insults like that? If the bear does not bite the animal that pokes it, that animal will return with more than a finger to bother it."

Kol huffed. "By the time I came to, he was gone!"

"Well, I guess I know what I'm going to do to him. I'll cut his arms off and pour acid over the stumps that remain. Maybe I'll neuter him, too."

"You will do no such thing," warned Elijah from the doorway. "Kol has neglected to mention he made the first attack against Matthew Donovan."

"What's the loss of another ratty football player in the grand scheme of things?"

"We are striving for peace and prosperity. Not violence."

"Good fucking luck with that, you live in Mystic Falls, Elijah. This place will not be peaceful as long as any supernatural species exists in it and even then, the nature of humans is not one of peace and prosperity, it is one of jealousy and violence. Where's Rebekah? I want to ask her about something."

Kol shrugged. "No idea. Like you, she didn't come home last night."

Vivalda scowled at him, noticing the way Elijah seemed to remember what he wanted to talk about. "Yes, indeed," he said. "Where were you, Vivalda?"

"Out," she said flatly. "With a friend."

"She smelled like blood and booze," whispered Kol.

"Hey! Backstabber!"

"That's for not taking me with you."

"What I wouldn't give to drive my sword through your face. Speaking of, where is Flame?"

Kol snorted into his palm. "I'm sorry, that name is still so–"

"You won't think it's funny when it saws you in half."

"It is in the attic," said Elijah, rubbing his forehead. "Vivalda, if you would please refrain from any more killing, just until you leave Mystic Falls..."

"Done. I plan to be gone by tonight anyway."

She sat on the couch with Kol, messaging with Antonella while her brother tried learning how to play Modern Warfarejust to annoy Klaus as he sketched. Vivalda didn't need to tilt her head up to see that he was drawing her as she glared at the game.

"These graphics are pathetic," said Vivalda. "It doesn't compare to the real thing."

"Nothing does," chirped Kol. "Ah, well, well, well, there's our girl!"

Vivalda snapped her head up as Rebekah walked back in, still wearing her green dress from the night before, hair now undone and makeup a tad smeared. "Get out of my way, Kol," she grumbled as the youngest brother sprang up to block her path.

"Out all night!" said Kol. "What a scandal! I trust you did better than that commoner? Matt, was it?"

"If you don't shut your mouth, the next thing to come out of it will be your teeth." She snapped at Klaus when he smirked, "Don't start, Nik!"

"I didn't say anything," said Klaus sweetly. "Valda, for the love of Mary Magdalene, if you move again–"

"Oh my god!" she groaned. "I moved my head two inches and you can't improvise? You've been looking at my same face for a thousand years."

"You were out all night, too!" argued Rebekah, pointing at Vivalda. "Why is nobody hounding her?"

"Because I earned my time away from home. Where were you, anyway? I want to talk to you about something."