The Other Hale.

Chapter Twenty Two: Explanations.

Her eyes widened, skin paling. Her mouth opened and hung in that position. I smiled warmly at her. Alaric fidgeted.

"I'm Katrina. Katrina Hale." I introduced myself.

"My niece." Alaric added, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Yes. Yes. Come in." Jenna whispered.

I followed Jenna into her home, trailing my suitcase behind me. Alaric followed, closing the door behind him. We were led into the living room, a cosy room with a dining table off to the side and the kitchen towards the back, Jenna sat down in the single chair, leaving Alaric and me to sit on the three seater.

"So you're Ric's niece?" Jenna asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes, although I haven't heard from him in a long time." I explained, making my eyes look big, round, innocent.

"Then why did you turn up at his door if you haven't heard from him?" She asked rather bluntly.

"Jenna.." Alaric trailed.

"Once my mother died, I had no one to go to. I could have stayed on my own but I'm far too young for that, so I came to my Uncle." I told her.

"What about your dad?"

"Ran out on me." I retorted.

"Jenna, I know this is a lot to ask of you, but my place is too small to have her, and it would be good for Elena and Katrina to bond. Good for Katrina to get new friends." Alaric pleaded.

"And it would be temporarily, eventually I'll get my own place, perhaps here, or back home." I added.

Jenna looked me over, closed her eyes for a moment or two before opening them accompanied with a sigh. "I'll show you to Elena's room. Ric can you get the sofa bed down please?" Jenna asked him as she stood up and begun to haul my trunk to the stairs.

I shot Alaric a triumphant smile before following Jenna. As I helped Jenna carry my trunk up the stairs, I could hear Alaric grunting as he pulled a sofa bed out a cupboard. Jenna cracked her knuckles once we reached the top before continuing down the hall.

"The room at the end is mine. This one here is Jeremy's." She told me, nodding to the door at the end and gesturing to the one at the side. "You'll have to share with Elena, there's only three rooms."

"That's fine, Elena seemed nice enough when I met her earlier." I smiled as we entered the remaining door.

The room was huge. There was a dressing table, covered with sentimental objects, perfumes, hair styling stuff, everything. On one side of the double bed was a chest of drawers, the other had a wall length wardrobe with mirrored doors. There was another door next to the dressing table, I briefly wondered what it led to, but let it blow over as Alaric brought the sofa bed in.

"Where do you want it Jenna?" He asked as he dropped it on the floor.

"Other side of the drawers." Jenna told him as she opened the wardrobe.

"Sure thing." He moved it over and unfolded it. Jenna passed him bed sheets and covers from the wardrobe and he applied them before standing back to admire his handiwork.

"It won't be the comfiest thing to sleep on, but it's all we have. The bathroom is through that door. Jeremy has a door into it as well." She told me as she and Alaric began backing out the room.

"Thank you, really." I smiled, my mind registering that the other door was the bathroom door.

Moments later, I was alone. I pulled my trunk over to my bed and looked around the room again. I noticed that there was pictures taped to the mirror at the dressing table. I went over to observe them. There was a picture of Elena, Caroline and Bonnie. Elena and Jeremy. Elena and Matt at a function of some sort. Jenna and Alaric. Elena and Stefan and the picture that Damon had in his room of all of them. There was another picture, three people were in it. Elena was in the middle, she looked younger than she does now. Must be her parents.

I sat down on the camp bed, scrunching my nose up when it creaked under my weight. With a heavy sigh, I pulled my wand out my boot.

"What's that?" Asked a voice from the doorway.

Cursing myself for not hearing them approach, I quickly hid it in my pocket. "Nothing."

"Do you just carry a stick on you?" Jeremy laughed.

"Never know when I might need to start a fire." I smirked, shooting him a smile.

He shook his head with a laugh before nodding his head and entering his own room.

I was lying on my bed, texting Bella about my new home when Elena came into the room.

"Are you staying long?" She asked straight away.

"In two weeks I need to return to Scotland." I replied, just as short.

"Scotland? I didn't think you were British?" She replied, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I'm not. I work over there in a boarding school, I'm American." I told her.

She just nodded. "They say you're another kind of vampire, I thought there was only one?" She finally asked, in a slightly lower tone.

"There's four. That I know of. Four different kinds. You have the ones you have become accustomed to, there's a kind that sparkle when in sunlight, and a kind that are just an abomination that should never have been created. And then there's my kind, the deadliest of them all." I told her, matching her tone.

"What makes you so sure that your kind is the deadliest of them all? I mean, aren't your kind almost extinct?" She asked rather smugly.

"My kind can't kill others of my kind, we also struggle to create more of our kind. So with us not being able to kill each other, and very little being made, the population was really just consistent, until these hunters came around, hunters trained by a vampire to kill us, we started to dwindle then." I told her in my school voice.

""So you've never killed?" She asked.

"I never said that." I trailed.

"So you've killed then."

"I never said that either. The last time I killed a human was back when I was first turned, so don't panic, but for some unknown reason, I am able to kill another one of my kind." I whispered. "If you'll excuse me, I think I shall take a walk."