The Red Queen | Lucien Castle & Tristan de Martel

Chapter 8

Tristan and Lucien followed her to the plane.

It was clear to them, in that moment, what Vivalda meant by them tailoring to different parts of her. Her personality, her needs.

Lucien had ranted along with her, letting her free her ideas of how she'd enact her revenge, how she'd burn down the Salvatore House and hunt that miserable friend group down one by one.

And when the emotional exhaustion hit, when reality became apparent and she internalized that her brother was dead and never coming back, Tristan had been there to hold her as she sobbed angrily.

The plan was clear even when unspoken. Tristan and Lucien would not enter Mystic Falls, they wouldn't even touch any of those responsible for killing Finn because Vivalda was already prepared to slaughter them with her bare hands.

Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus hadn't bothered to make a move. For all they knew, Elijah wasn't even in Virginia.

Vivalda would kill Matt Donovan. This, she would not waver on. He dealt the killing blow, he'd be the first to die.

She was already dressed in her armor. She'd long since abandoned gorgets to protect her neck– she didn't fear a strike there. Her breastplate was small and only covered her heart with criss-crossed metal sheets and leather straps that tucked nicely behind her back to shield it from behind as well, and attached to her pauldrons, only covering the tops of her shoulders. Her vambraces were short, long enough at the wrists to tuck two knives on each arm. The fault was similar to her breastplate, stabilizing her hips just enough to keep the tight black shirt she wore beneath it secured and to provide her a good place to clip her sword. Instead of a gauntlet, she wore fingerless black gloves. She fastened greaves to each shin and tucked knives there, too, should she need them. Black boots at the very end secured her feet, and in her opinion, did wonders to crush a person's skull.

"There is only one thing I must say, love," warned Tristan as the plane prepared to land. "I do not say it because I agree with your brothers in any way, but you must consider that both Niklaus and Rebekah seem to like Stefan Salvatore. Not to mention Niklaus requires the doppelgänger's blood to create hybrids. Sickening as the species is, he will retaliate against you even if you kill them to avenge your brother."

"I know," she said tightly, staring out the window. "And Rebekah has already stated that Damon and Stefan Salvatore must be kept alive in order for them to obtain the rest of the white oak. If they want to be idiots, they can be. It would take two seconds to kidnap them, enter their minds to procure the location, then kill them so nobody is left to use the white oak. How pathetic they are... they cannot retaliate on their own. I will make my statement, little as it may seem. I will kill Matt Donovan and with it, Elena and her little friends will suffer. And forever onward they will be marked. They will never be safe again. Every enemy they face after this will be sent by me. I have hordes of vampires who would kill to be given a mission from me, and I will make sure that if they live, they will wish they hadn't. My siblings wish to protect them, fine, they can face the consequences. I will not continue to tell them the truth– that they need to stop leaving these brats alive. Perhaps now they will finally learn their lesson. All of them."

She stopped at the mansion first, confirming that Elijah was not, in fact, in Mystic Falls. Rebekah and Klaus were in the parlor, not truly expecting her.

"Where is he?" asked Vivalda immediately. "His body, his ashes, where is it?"

"Hello to you, too," said Klaus.

"I asked you a question. Where did you put him?"

He gestured to an urn resting comfortably on the fireplace. "There's your big brother."