A/N: Hii, I felt like writing a new story and this is the idea I came up with ;)

Rated M for lime scenes, Klaus and Elijah's sexiness and ripperish behavior xD

Disclaimer: (Sadly) I do not own the Vampire Diaries or any of its characters, but I do own those that aren't in the show or books

Enjoy!

xoxo Ascha

Beautiful Monsters

Prologue:

Mystic Falls, 1862

Snow was falling beautifully from the nearly pure white sky as I heard Stefan and Damon make their way down the stairs, all dressed up in their warmest clothes, so they would be ready to go outside and enjoy the weather as only two troublemaking brothers could do. I wanted to join them outside, but was caught in a long and dreadful conversation mostly between my father Giuseppe and my future husband William, who were busy talking about the wedding as usual.

"You're too slow, brother!" I could hear Damon say loudly from outside.

"We'll see about that, brother!" Stefan said and there was a burst of laughter from both of them.

I instinctively smiled weakly and a quiet snicker escaped my lips, making my dear fiancé and father stop talking and looking at me with a puzzled look on their face.

"Althea?" Father said with a raised eyebrow. "Do you find the matter of your marriage amusing?"

"Of course not, it's just…" I sighed and looked out at my two younger brothers.

They looked so content and so carefree.

William seemed to notice that I was longing to go outside, for he suddenly kissed my hand gently and made me look into those caring eyes of his.

"You are free to leave, my love. We can take care of the rest without you." he said.

I smiled brightly and thanked him, then hurried outside to my brothers, who were tumbling around in the snow and laughing. I took a handful of snow even though I was not wearing my gloves and made a ball out of it, then threw the snowball towards Damon as hard as I could. It smashed into his face and knocked him down just as he had gotten up, making him frown and turn his head towards me at the doorstep of our home.

"Now that is not very ladylike, sister…" he said, getting up from the snow-covered ground once again.

He looked at Stefan with a meaningful look and suddenly my brothers began making snowballs as well with a mischievous look in their eyes. I gasped and quickly ran away before their snowball hit me and the two snowballs ended up smashing into the front door instead. I grabbed another handful of snow and disappeared behind a bush before they saw me, hiding until Damon was close enough for me to jump on his back and smear the snow in his hair and face.

"Damon, are you really going to let a girl get you like that?" Stefan asked teasingly as I jumped off Damon's back, still giggling of the annoyed facial expression Damon showed.

"Of course not! Let's catch her!" Damon said, making me run off once more.

We chased each other, threw balls of snow and laughed as we enjoyed our time together. By the time we were too cold and too tired to throw another snowball our father was standing at the door and shaking his head of us, while William merely smiled at me.

He might be almost ten years older than me, but he understood that I was still young and wanted to have fun… well, most of the time. It did happen that he sometimes would tell me not to embarrass him or scold me like my father did, because I was not acting like a proper lady.

"You better get inside," William said, helping me up from the cold ground. My dark green dress was soaked and dirty, my long and dark curled hair looked like a bird's nest and my body was shivering from the cold. "I cannot wait to see you at the family dinner tomorrow night."

Oh, yes. I'd nearly forgotten all about the dinner with his family tomorrow and even the thought of talking with his dull parents, who only seemed interested in politics and pointless gossip about the other founding families in our town. Most of the time I wanted to stab myself with a fork or slit my throat with a knife, because they were some of the most racist, hypocritical and incredibly posh.

"I too cannot wait," I lied and smiled sweetly. "Take care, William."

He pressed his lips briefly to mine whilst my brothers were busy talking with my father and I waited until he'd left completely before I let the smile fade away. As much as I liked talking with him sometimes, then I had never felt love whenever I was alone with him.

"Thea?" Stefan said worriedly, taking my attention away from my thoughts.

"Come, Steffie. Let's get a cup of tea and sit at the fireplace." I said before he could ask.

Stefan rolled his eyes at the nickname I'd given him, but he went inside with me and after changing to dry and warm clothes we sat at the fireplace together with a warm cup of tea. Damon and our father unfortunately had to leave, because they had business to attend to at the Lockwood Estate and since Stefan was only 15 and I a woman, then we had to stay behind.

"It's strange to think that my oldest sibling is getting married in only a month," Stefan said and took a sip of his tea. "Are you excited?"

"Of course not," I blurted and blushed when I realized what I'd said. But it was too late now and Stefan didn't seem that surprised of my answer. "What I meant is that… I am excited about getting married, but… not to William. He is a kind man, but–"

"But you do not love him. We know."

I frowned. "We?"

Stefan's cheeks became flushed and he scratched his ruffled dark blonde hair nervously. "Damon and I have noticed that you seem… unhappy with William."

I sighed and looked out of the window. The snow was still falling, but the sky had turned darker and I knew that it wouldn't be long before a storm would come. It was rarely that it snowed in this part of Virginia, but this year we had been getting a lot of snow and of course my brothers had taken full advantage of that. Last time we had snow was about six years ago and at time I had only been 15, Damon 13 and Stefan barely 9 years old.

"Do you think Father will hate me if I… left? Would you and Damon?" I asked, moving my gaze back to my brother.

This time Stefan was shocked. "Are you thinking about running away?" he asked anxiously. "And then a month before your wedding?"

"Perhaps… I don't know. I feel like it is the only way out of this… arranged marriage of mine." I said.

"Althea… you know I love you very dearly and cannot stand seeing you unhappy, but is this truly what you want? Or are you just… nervous?"

I shrugged. Maybe I did want it or maybe I was just nervous. Either way, then I rather wanted to travel around the world and enjoy being young instead of getting married so soon only to have William's children and be a good wife.

"I won't go if you will hate me for it." I said after a while.

"We won't hate you no matter what you decide to do," Stefan said. "I promise."

"Sharing secrets, are we?" a sudden voice said.

I looked up at Damon, who'd just come back home and he was looking at us with a slightly suspicious look in his eyes. He always hated being left out on secrets just like I hated not being able to enjoy my youth as much as they could.

"Oh, we were just talking about your lack of dancing skills," I lied teasingly, making Damon wrinkle his nose. "Right, Stefan?"

Stefan looked at me for a moment, but nodded and grinned. "You always were born with two left feet!" he said teasingly.

Damon rolled his eyes of us and took a seat next to me on the couch. "Why are you back so early anyway? Did Father have enough of you?"

"Ha-ha, very funny, but no. He needed to speak with the mayor privately and no longer needed my services anyway."

I raised an eyebrow at that. Our father had always been a very secretive man – especially after the unfortunate death of our mother, who died while giving birth to Stefan. No one ever asked him about what he did whenever he didn't want us to go with him, because we were afraid that he would either scold us for interfering in his business or say that it was nothing special.

Later that day as everyone was getting ready to go to bed and it had become dark outside, I packed a couple of my things and paid one of our maids to prepare a carriage for me. I'd had time to think about what I was about to do and I decided to follow the desires of my heart by leaving. I knew that my father would never forgive me for it and that Damon might hate me for not telling him anything, but I had to do this.

I wanted to be free.

However, before I snuck out of our house I left a letter inside my brothers' bedrooms that they would find tomorrow morning when they woke up. I left something else in Damon's bedroom since I knew that he would take my departure the hardest and I therefore wanted him to have my diary, so he hopefully would understand that this thought of traveling around the world was not some silly idea, but a wish I'd had for many years.

I then set off in the carriage and told the coachman to take me to Atlanta where I hoped to be able to convince my aunt into letting me stay with her for the night. I was nervous and somewhat excited at the same time, because even though I was infuriating my father by doing this, then I would finally get what I wanted for once.

Or so I thought, until I suddenly heard the sound of someone calling my name in an angry tone. I looked out of the window and saw my father along with a few other men, riding towards me on their horse. I panicked and quickly told the coachman to go faster, which he then did despite the fact that it was dangerous for us to be driving in this storm in the first place.

I looked out of the window again and could see that we'd lost my father, but as I did the carriage suddenly skidded off the road and I heard the horses screech as it was knocked over. I held on to the carriage, but still found myself being flung around, until the carriage finally stopped moving on the slippery road. My head was spinning and aching so much that I found it hard to concentrate on anything and I just lay pressed against the carriage door without being able to move.

But when I heard the sound of another carriage I gathered my strength to get up and suddenly felt a strong pain in my chest, making me fear that I'd broken a rib or two. I bit down in my bottom lip and endure the pain long enough for me to get up in a sitting position.

The other door to the carriage was suddenly opened, though, and I wasn't met by a pair of familiar eyes that belonged to my father or brothers, but these were sky-blue and the face they belonged to made me forget about the pain I was feeling right now.

"Tell me your name." he said as he crawled inside the carriage.

I saw flakes of snow in his dark blonde hair and wanted so badly to brush them away just to touch him. "Althea," I said and my eyes widened when I suddenly saw a pair of fangs extent from his mouth. He bit into his wrist and forced me to drink his blood, which I reluctantly did. I felt some of the pain disappear as if his blood was healing me and I pushed him away. "Who-who are you?"

He lifted me up and as I now stood I could see that he was a very handsome man. "Call me Klaus."

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