Sire (The Vampire Rules)

Sire (noun): A respectful form of address for someone of high social status, especially a king;
a father or other male forebear.

Sire (verb): To beget; procreate as the father.

Chapter 2: Always and Forever

The Journal of Elijah Mikelson:

I never wanted to turn my siblings. It still troubles me to this day that I made them into what I am. Niklaus was the first. He came to me a few weeks after our father Mikael and I had been cursed and explained his fear of our father's retribution. Mikael had already slaughtered the neighboring village of werewolves; one of whom had killed my brother Henrik. Mikael never liked Niklaus, for reasons Mikael himself was never aware of. Adding to this dislike, this hate, was that Niklaus was with our brother Henrik the night the werewolf took him from us. Our father wondered: Why did Niklaus take him to watch the transformations? Why was Niklaus spared?

Niklaus felt guilt about that night, a guilt he still carries although few would know the role that plays in the rage with which he lives his life. But back then, more than the guilt, he felt fear of our father. My mother also feared her husband; he was a brute to all of us at one time or another. And now, he was an immortal, incredibly strong, and blood-thirsty brute. He hadn't yet fed on any of us, and I hadn't either, but we all felt he was on the verge of turning his aggression on us at any time.

My mother pulled me aside one night after father had gone hunting for fresh blood in the nearby villages. "You are the only one who can protect us from him," she told me. I asked how. She handed me a large wooden stake. It was light in color and intricately carved. "This is the remaining piece of the tree under which I cast the spell; I burned the rest of the tree to ash. I have enchanted this piece and it alone can kill you or your father. I cannot risk him acquiring it from me; you would have no protection. If the time comes that he is too much of a danger to any of us you must use it."

I remember being stunned by her words and asking, "Kill my own father?" She nodded her head, "Yes my son, there will come a time when you must do just that."

I did not tell Niklaus about the white oak stake when he came to me with his concerns about Mikael. He begged me to talk to our mother about cursing him as well. By then the whole family knew most of the manifestations of the curse. I was stronger, faster, and healed quickly from injury. On the downside, of course, I needed to consume human blood. I hungered for it with a ferocity that could not be contained.

But where Niklaus was concerned, I knew my choices were limited:

Do nothing and our father would probably kill him.

Kill our father myself; or,

Turn Niklaus into a monster as well.

I decided the third option was the preferable solution and together we approached our mother. Esther told us she was not needed to transform Niklaus; I could do that on my own. She explained how and Niklaus and I headed into the woods for privacy. I bit into my own wrist and he drank of my blood. He said it was appalling and that he felt no different. What our mother neglected to tell us was that he wouldn't be fully transformed until he died; that happened when our father returned from his hunt and found Niklaus alone. My brother knew by the pronounced veins on Mikael's face and the fury in his eyes, death was at hand.


Present Day
New Orleans

It was another 30 minutes before Trevor returned to the hotel. Elijah turned to him with an exasperated glare when he entered the suite and snapped, "It takes two hours to go to the other side of the Quarter to deliver a message?"

Trevor bowed his head, swallowed hard, and chose his words carefully before looking up again. "Forgive me Sire; it took some time to locate Mr. Gerard."

"Was he not at the compound?"

"He was, but there was a large gathering with many…"

Elijah cut him off with a wave of his hand, and Trevor stopped speaking. Elijah knew without being told that Marcel was reluctant to comply with his orders. He had encountered these same difficulties everywhere he went; everywhere he tried to establish new vampire colonies. Organizing existing vampires into ordered society was much more difficult than if one sired a group. Those he turned would automatically be beholden to his word and would follow his orders. But Elijah hadn't turned anyone but his siblings, and that had been a millennium ago. He believed there were too many vampires in the world already, and he saw most of them as rabid animals with no honor or conscience.

Trevor knew his Sire would feel that way about most of the crowd gathered at Marcel's house. He hoped Marcel would do as instructed and banish the lot of them from the premises.

"How did he respond to the news?" Elijah interrupted Trevor's thoughts.

Rebekah was quietly sitting in a corner of the room. She listened intently to the exchange between her brother and his servant, hoping Trevor would say nothing to anger Elijah further, especially nothing negative about Marcel.

"He was surprised you have come here," Trevor answered honestly. "But he understands what he needs to do."

"Surprised, and not happy," Elijah stated.

"Yes Sire."

"Forgive my mood Trevor," Elijah requested. "I am anticipating the challenges ahead."

Trevor bowed his head again and said, "Thank you My Sire." His heart swelled with admiration for his King. Yes, Elijah was sometimes irritable and was certainly vicious when angry, but mostly he was a fair and just ruler.

Elijah looked at his sister. "Have you spoken with Niklaus?"

Rebekah nodded, "Yes, of course. But he's not coming anytime soon."

Elijah looked up at the ceiling and tried not to get upset again. "I've over-indulged him; he's taking advantage of my generosity."

"Nik always looks out for himself first, you know that," Rebekah quipped.

Elijah looked at her quizzically. "Are you forgetting how he sent you back to me in Europe because your homesickness was so great? That wasn't being selfish."

Rebekah bit her own tongue, literally. She wasn't prepared to have that lie thrown back in her face by its recipient. Over 150 years ago she and Niklaus were living in New Orleans, ruling the burgeoning Vampire society in the French Quarter. Marcel Gerard was a young man Klaus had rescued as a boy from slavery, and Klaus loved him as a son. Klaus didn't like sharing his sister with any other man, not that his possession of her was sexual in nature, and he certainly didn't want to share Marcel with her. Once he noticed their growing attraction to each other he sent her packing back to Elijah. To make it up to Marcel, Klaus gave in and fulfilled the young man's dream of becoming a vampire. When Rebekah arrived back at Elijah's estate in Europe, she lied, told him she was homesick, and had missed her Sire too much to stay away.

Finally Rebekah replied to Elijah, who'd been studying her expression, unable to discern the source of it. "You are right brother; I'm sorry I was so hard on him."

"Hasn't he had his fill of keeping company with the wolves yet?" Elijah asked.

"Well apparently there's a lady wolf he hooked up with one night, and a lovely vamp he's besotted with," Rebekah explained.

Elijah had heard enough. "Get him on the phone," he ordered. Trevor was still standing near his King waiting to be dismissed, or commanded. Elijah looked at him. "Get some rest, and then go back there in the morning and make sure Gerard is preparing our home in a suitable manner."

"Forgive me, Sire…" Trevor began.

"What?"

"…you'll need me here, won't you?"

"My sister will attend to me; at least one of my siblings remembers their obligations."

Trevor bowed his head yet again, then turned and retired to his adjoining hotel room. He was still concerned about his Sire's aggravated state and wondered how much worse it would get if the Lord Niklaus said the wrong thing.

"Nik, Elijah wants to speak with you," Rebekah informed her other brother on the phone. She then handed it to Elijah.

"Niklaus..."

"Brother…"Klaus began, ready to spin his reasons for wanting to stay in Mystic Falls longer.

"Let's try that again Niklaus," Elijah stated; "call me 'Sire' and then listen and obey what I tell you to do."

Klaus thought about contradicting him but knew there was a line one should never push Elijah across. Since Elijah was more powerful than any of his siblings, crossing that point could be disastrous. And there was the matter of that red door in Elijah's mind…

"Sire," Klaus replied, "may I stay here a few more days? I promise I will then join you in our family's American home."

"You have one more day," Elijah conceded. "Then you will take your place by my side. I have a feeling there will be many issues here for you to address." Since Niklaus was a Hybrid, both a vampire and werewolf, he possessed special abilities that made him uniquely qualified to motivate reluctant vampires to fall in line with Elijah's vampire society rules.

"I will be there in two days," Klaus promised. Elijah hung up and handed the phone back to Rebekah.

"Are you OK?" she asked him.

"Irritated, and in need of a drink," he replied.

She walked over to the mini bar to pour him a scotch. Halfway there she turned back. "Did you mean a drink, or a DRINK?"

The pronounced veins in his face gave her the answer. She walked over to the desk phone and picked it up. "Room service please."'


1,000 A.D.

"Rebekah, walk with me." Esther Mikelson guided her daughter away from their family dwellings for a private chat. Once out of earshot, which was quite a distance considering the family consisted mostly of vampires, Esther explained, "Now that your brother has turned you too there is something you need to know about him." Rebekah had been the last of the siblings to be turned. She had begged her brothers to make her immortal so she could share eternal life with them all. She drank Elijah's blood, but he couldn't bring himself to snap her neck. Niklaus saw Elijah's struggle and killed their sister for him. When she awoke, she drank from Elijah again to complete her transformation. All of them had done the same, and continued to for a full year after being turned. Elijah had commanded his siblings to drink only from him. His blood would make them strong, and he alone would hunt for blood from innocents.

Esther continued, "The burden of what he's done, what he will continue to do, is too much for Elijah to bear on his own. So I have created for him, in his mind, a red door. When he kills, or when he makes another into what he is, as he's done with his siblings, he will put the guilt and pain of that action behind that red door and therefore out of his conscience mind. As long as he keeps himself neat and clean he will not feel the effects of the horrors he has perpetrated. But you my daughter must take care to never let him experience too much anger. If he does that door may open and his rage would be uncontrollable. Do you understand?"

Rebekah assured her mother that she did understand. She quickly told Niklaus about the red door and he promised to help her keep it shut. Klaus owed Elijah much he could never repay. Elijah had always protected him, especially from their brute of a father whom Elijah had ultimately killed. The two siblings promised each other they would remain ever vigilant where the welfare of their brother, their Sire, was concerned. "Always and forever," they swore. Approaching and hearing the end of their oath, Elijah inquired, "A pact that doesn't include me?"

"Of course it includes you," Rebekah smiled and put her hand out to him. "Always and forever My Sire." Elijah smiled back at her.

"Always and forever My Sire," Klaus echoed. Elijah put out his other hand to his brother who took it in his. "Always and forever," Elijah repeated as Rebekah and Klaus joined hands to make the triad complete.