Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Martels

Getting to France was a long and difficult journey almost seven months of travelling on land and boat, stopping occasionally at villages on the way. Unlike in the show, Finn had stepped up as our de facto leader, much to Elijah's chagrin. Also, unlike in the show, Finn showed no disdain for the rest of us and our gluttony; in fact, he fed just as often as we did. I imagined this had to do with our childhoods, unlike the show, I had kept us all as close-knit as possible, so Finn saw us as actual siblings and not monsters; it also was probably helped by including him in the vow. Finn, like Elijah, was quite honour-bound and would not willingly break a vow, so his inclusion, like Kol's, in the vow we made seemed to cement his place in the family. Kol was only slightly less bloodthirsty than his show counterpart. Feeling robbed of his magic, he acted out. Luckily, I still had much to learn from the former prodigy witch, so teaching seemed to calm his darker impulses. Elijah was almost the same as his show counterpart, just as honourable and neat.

I had tried talking to him about Tatia more than once, but he claimed his mother killed her. I suppose that she managed to get her hands on him after all. Klaus, well, it was hard to tell he seemed fine, I knew that it was not true that everything that had happened definitely affected him, but anytime I tried to bring it up, he would shut down and focus on art. Rebekah my youngest sibling was also similar to her show counterpart, every village we went through she would stop at the markets trying to convince us all that we needed to bye nicer clothes or jewellery, I did not complain much and had given on on more than one occasion buying her quite a fair bit of jewelery. My favouritism for Rebekah had been noticed by all of our siblings, luckily, as far as I was aware, they had no idea about our hidden affair, never once noticing that we disappeared together nightly for hours at a time. That I suppose brings me to myself over there last few months, I kept up training, spending free time practising with my weapons and studying magic, my vampiric abilities had also improved. It seemed as though we had more powers than originally expected, but looking back on the show, I remember Damon's first appearance, he controlled fog, turned into a bird and even seemed to fly. While the last two were beyond my ability for now, I had started getting proficient in controlling fog, able to blanket several metres in a thick fog. We also seemed to have control over shadows as I could bend them to my will for a short time, my compulsion was also improving, I could effortlessly use it to erase any memory someone had of us. While I had not yet shared my control over shadows and my compulsion with my siblings, I had shared my control over fog with them and combined, we could blanket dozens of metres in fog. As also mentioned, my relationship with Rebekah had continued; most days we were joined at the hip, and nights we were entangled in the throes of passion.

It was quite early in the day when we saw a carriage travelling towards us. We were all quite hungry, so we decided it was best to feed on its inhabitants. We had got stopping them down to an art form over the past couple of months. One of us would block the road and signal for help. When it slowed to a stop, the rest of us would pounce upon it from hiding places, a perfect ambush. This tactic had only failed us once, when the carriage driver must have known something was wrong so he sped up hitting Kol head on, this would kill any human unfortunately it only pissed Kol off and he ripped the entire carriage to pieces. The carriage slowed down as Elijah flagged it down, so we pounced from our hiding places in the trees. Immediately, I noticed that all six passengers were well dressed in fancy silks and expensive jewellery, but it did not stop me from feeding through. Rebekah, having finished her meal, started to examine the dresses that belonged to the young women in the carriage. I could see the desire in her eyes. Apparently, Elijah could to as he started "Rebekah we had very talked about this" he stated as though his word was law "no you talked about this, none of us got a say in the matter. Perhaps we could go in there stead live like nobles for once" she said sadly, our travels had left little time for comfort and I knew that it had left us all demoralised. Before the arguments could continue, my hearing picked up a faint heartbeat inside the carriage. In an instant, I was there and pulled out a familiar face, that of Lucien Castle. I had drawn my claws and was about to sink them into his chest and pull out his heart, to save him from becoming trouble in the future, but the voice of Finn called to me to stop. I did barely, I knew that he would cause an ungodly amount of trouble in the future but pissing off my siblings was something I wanted to avoid. Lucien was still dangling in the air my enhanced strength holding him effortlessly a foot off the ground "please don't kill me, I overheard your conversation, I can help you. I was sent to deliver the nobles to the Martels, if you want to convince them that you are them then you need me". I looked around at my siblings, each in contemplation, before the voice of Klaus broke the silence, saying that it should be brought to a vote. My sibling agreed, and we voted that only Elijah and I wanted to kill him and keep moving. I had hoped that Kol would side with us, but unfortunately, he did not. So it was settled that we would follow Lucien to the residence of Count De Martel.

We arrived a couple of hours later, the castle loomed over us, my siblings looked upon it with awe, I was not as impressed, as in my previous life I had visited the remains of castles. Still, it was quite interesting seeing one in perfect condition, the massive stone walls showing no signs of damage. I stepped out of the carriage first with my siblings in tow. Lucien had talked us through most of what was expected of us and had given us extra advice to win the count's favour. We walked through the entrance of the castle, casting my eyes across the room. I saw many nobles dotted about, all turning their eyes toward us as we entered. Three of the figures inside the hall interested me more than the rest, the first being the Count himself, a large man with a heavy gut, probably due to the lavish feasts and not having cause to exercise. The next was the son of the Count, unlike his father, he was lean and not too tall, I could tell just by looking at him he trained to fight, maybe not as much as I, but perhaps he would make a decent sparing partner. The last figure that caught my attention was the daughter of the Count, Aurora De Martel. Her show counterpart was already stunning, but somehow this version was beyond even that, although she could never compete with Rebekah, I could see why both Lucien and Klaus were interested in her. I looked back towards the Count, as we arrived towards him, as recommended by Lucien, the oldest of us, Finn stepped forward and began to introduce us. Finn introduced himself first, being brief, bowing as a sign of respect before stepping to the side and introducing Elijah, who immediately started to talk about hunting with him, one of the interests Lucien revealed the Count had. After Elijah was finished, Finn introduced me, as I stepped forward to bow, I noticed the Count's guards step forward as well. I was briefly confused before realising that my blade still hung at my belt. Smiling, I stood straight. "Do not be concerned that I carry these weapons, the roads are harsh, I only carried them just in case some bandits wished to slow us down", I assured them. They seemed to relax slightly, though their hands were still on their weapons. I stepped to the side next to Elijah and Finn introduced Klaus, then Kol and finally Rebekah. Rebekah stepped forward, wrapped in a stunning sapphire blue dress that clung to her like a second skin and delivered a deep bow, seeing the Count's eyes look my sister up and down with lust in his eyes, I felt my rage begin to boil. My hand instinctively reached for the dagger at my back, before a hand clasped on my shoulder, turning, I met the eyes of Elijah, who lightly shook his head. I looked around, coming to the conclusion that only he had witnessed my murderous intention. I dropped my hands back to my waist. The Count could live, I suppose, for now at least, but before I left this castle, I would take his perverted eyes, before tearing out his spine.

After greeting the Count, Lucien was ordered to show us to our rooms. As we walked through the halls of the castle, Lucien continued to fill us in on information he believed to be important. Shutting out his voice, I looked around the halls, which were large and wide enough for us all to walk side by side comfortably, and the height of the ceiling above our heads also reached several metres. Tapestries lined the wall telling stories of Great battles, each one illuminated by large braziers that burned low. Finally, after walking for a couple of minutes, we reached the rooms we would stay in, befitting the nobles we were pretending to be; each of us had an equally large room.

As I stepped inside my room, I was taken aback by the sheer size of it, easily twice the size of the entire hovel we grew up in, a bed lay on one side of the room larger than any I had seen, even in my previous life. In the corner near the door stood a desk, sturdy and about eight feet long, on the same side, but in the other corner lay a grand copper bath, although its size was excessive, it would fit five people comfortably. I walked towards the bed, I removed my weapons, although I kept them all in arm's reach, before lying down, immediately I was hit by the comfort of it, far grander than the simple animal hide bed I had used for over twenty years. I sank deeper into it, shut my eyes and allowed sleep to take me.

I woke up an hour or two later, as a knock sounded on my door. Standing and walking to the door to answer it, I was surprised to see a face I did not recognise. "My lord, the Count thought you may wish to bathe after a long time on the road and sent me to fill your tub up", the girl said, smiling. I thanked her and allowed her to continue. A hot bath, the entire second life I had only bathed in the freezing river near our village, I could get used to this lifestyle. A face at my door broke me out of my thoughts, my older brother Elijah "Come, brother, I wish to talk" I followed him after he spoke, we walked to a quiet part of the castle where nobody could hear us. "Are you crazy"? He immediately asked. I of course knew what he was on about, my earlier behaviour, reaching for a dagger so I could kill the Count, "he was looking at our sister disrespectfully, and perhaps I lost my temper," I responded, making sure it did not sound too much like an apology. "Really, that is why you did it, because she's our sister, or maybe" he left the sentence open, accusation in his voice. He knew, how could he "if you are to accuse me of something, brother, then you should at least say what you mean". "Do you think i am blind, every night you too sneak off, only returning in the morning, it does not take a genius to work out that you are fucking each other". I looked at him for a second, there was no disgust on his face as I assumed there would be, before I could respond, he began again, "Your secret is safe with me, brother, as long as you are both happy," he continued. I nodded, he turned on his heel and disappeared back down the hall.

I went back to my room. The servants had filled the tub, and, I could finally relax. Just as I was about to close the door a hand pushed it open again. Rebekah walked inside, locking it as she came in, "I saw the servants filling your bath and thought you would enjoy the company". She slipped past me, looking back, she started stripping a smile on her face, before climbing into the bath. I returned the smile and did the same before joining her. This could be a good couple of months I thought to myself, very good indeed.