The Apprentice (The Originals/The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter Five

 Annette awoke in her own bed as the sun was rising. She sat up and tried to remember the night before, and to understand it. One moment she was watching the sunset, and the next she had been on the ground, withering in pain. And Mikael locked her in the barn. That was all she could remember.

 She got dressed and went to find breakfast and Mikael, in no particular order, as she was now starving.

 "Mikael?" she called. "Where are you?"

 "In here."

 She opened the door to the room across the hallway. Mikael was sitting on the bed, still in yesterday's clothes, staring down at an angry wound on his arm. 

 "Where did you get that?" Annette asked.

 "From you. You don't understand what happened last night, do you?"
 
 "No, I don't. That's what I was going to ask you. I don't remember anything. What happened to me, Mikael?"

 He seemed to be deciding how to tell her what he was going to tell her, and seemed to decide on the most basic way.

 "You are a werewolf, Annette."

 "A...a werewolf? But how can I be a werewolf?"

 "To begin the transformations into a werewolf, you have to kill someone. I didn't think killing a vampire would do it, but I suppose it did." He looked up at her again. "Unless you killed someone else." 

 Annette thought back. Slowly, she said, "There was something, something I didn't tell you. A few days ago, when I to the market, there was a man there bothering me. As I was leaving, he grabbed me and pulled me into an empty street. I pulled out my stake and stabbed him. And I left him there."

 Mikael nodded. "That would have done it. I didn't know you were a werewolf until your transformation began last night."

 "Is the transformation always that painful?" Annette asked. "It is, isn't it? You know, you still haven't told me how I gave you that wound, you know."

 "No, I haven't, have I? After I locked you in the barn, I stood outside and waited for your transformation to complete. I was hoping you wouldn't be able to get out of the barn. It took you some time, but you broke the doors open. I tried to stop you from going any further, but you bit me and took off. I waited, hoping you would find your way back. I just laid on the ground staring at the sky. After some time, you returned and collapsed on the ground, transforming back into your own self."

 "What does that wound do to you?"

 "Werewolf venom can kill ordinary vampires, but I am an Original, so I have had severe pain and hallucinating. But the worst of it is over now. How do you feel?" 

 "Tired. And hungry. I am going to get breakfast. Are you going to eat anything?"

 "I don't require food. You eat. Oh, Annette," he said as she got up to leave, "I was thinking, perhaps it is time we leave. I have been in one place for far too long. I need to go back into the world, back to hunting. I have a mission to complete, and I cannot stop until I have completed it. I wondered if perhaps, since you are already showing signs of being a good hunter...you would like to join me?"

 Annette gave him a smile. "I would be happy to. But breakfast first."

 Mikael gave her a small smile back. "Of course." 

~~~~~~

 As they sat in the station, waiting for the next train, Annette asked, "Where will we be going?"

 "That depends on you."

 She looked at him in surprise. "Me?"

 "Yes, you. Where would you like to go, Annette? At this point, Niklaus and my children could be anywhere in the world. Therefore, we should start anywhere in the world. But before we leave, you should know that this will not be easy. I'm not an ideal travelling companion. If you ever grow tired of it, you can leave."

 "I understand. I think you're just not used to having company. I don't how you were able to be alone for so long. I would have hated it."

 "There are times when I have hated it. I know I'm cold, but I have liked your company these last few weeks. I...like you." He paused. "Would you like to go to Egypt, Annette?"

 "Egypt?" she repeated. "Yes, I did think of it."

 "Yes, interesting place, lots of history. We'll go there, then. Oh, look, there's the train."

 Annette couldn't help smiling at Mikael's not-so-subtle change of topic. He seemed to want to ask her to be friends, but clearly was clueless as to how to do that.

 "I like you, you know," she said as they boarded the train. 

 He stared at her in apparent shock. "What?"

 "I said, I like you. You've been kind to me and let me stay with you when I told you I had nowhere else to go. I am still grieving, but your teachings have provided a distraction, and I don't know anyone else who would know anything about werewolves."

 "Annette, you have only known me for four weeks. I'm...not the best person to have for a friend. Or a teacher in anything, really, besides murdering."

 "Then prove you can teach other things," Annette said. "You can teach me things. You say you have been alive for over nine hundred years; you must have learned something in your time. But first," she added as the train began to leave the station, "I think I need more sleep. Wake me when we get to the our stop, would you?"

 Mikael nodded. "Of course." 

~~~~~~ 

 Mikael sat silently in his own thoughts as Annette slept. She had dozed off with her head resting on his shoulder, and he had made no attempt to move her. She deserved some rest, he thought, after the events of the last month.

 He admired her strength. She had lost the two people in the world who had really meant something to her and just discovered she was a werewolf, yet she was keeping herself strong and keeping a cheerful attitude about everything. And working in a dressmaking factory could not have been easy; he had read of the working conditions in the factories, and knew they were terrible.

 But he had seen it in her eyes; deep down, she was afraid. She was afraid of being a werewolf, of the pain, of what she was capable of. He wasn't sure why, or when he began to feel it, but looking at her now, sleeping so peacefully, he felt the need to look after her, to protect her. She definitely wasn't a naïve girl; she knew the world was a cruel, dangerous place.

 But he wanted to protect her, anyway.