The years had been good to us. Mikael hadn't caught us since America and while 2 years doesn't seem to be a very long time it was an achievement. We were still travelling as a family orphaned in a terrible attack in France. Elijah was the head of the family but Nik often took over the discussions as he liked the feeling of power.
Tensions were rising between the oldest brother, you could see it in their faces. The hostility between the two was growing strong and soon they would fight I was sure of it. Nobody had seen Finn or Sage in years, Nik always looked guilty so I eventually presumed that they had fought and it caused Finn to leave. I often wondered what happened to Amelia, did she turn or did she chose to live a long healthy life?
Rebekah had left a string of broken hearts behind, her beauty was captivating and in most of the places we were going she was a foreign beauty. She had the mystery and the beauty and it seemed to work in her benefit. Men would fall at her feet with gifts and other things to try and get a moment with this rare girl.
The younger children still looked the same, we wouldn't know if the tonic worked for a few more years and I still regretted it. There was little I could do now and it was an unfortunate circumstance. But we still had not seen Sophie since she left in 1013, we had sent people after her but nobody had seen her or George. Kol was furious and he was going to kill George if he ever saw him again, in his eyes this was his fault because it could never have been Sophie that decided to run. I was certainly getting worried as her mother, not only was she missing but she was aging. We hadn't told her about the true life we could offer her and if he never returned, if we never find her, then we would truly lose her.
At the moment we weren't living as highborn, we wanted to stay off the radar to make sure that Mikael didn't find us. We found that he was less likely to find us if we were playing the part of being poor. It wasn't so bad, we had the gold t live and survive it just meant we didn't have extreme luxuries.
We had found a close-knit community in the middle of the German woods. Kol and I had a cabin to our selves with Erin and Cormac and Rebekah, Nik and Elijah all shared one. We were staying in a little log cabin with a chimney made of stone, it was certainly a shabby little thing but it had been our home for almost a year. There was fire outside that we usually cooked the meat on, it avoided blood dripping in the house.
A storm was coming I could feel it in the air, for some reason my magic was acting up more and more. It meant I was more in tune with nature, so I could feel a big storm coming weeks before it came. However, this time it was making me agitated as it felt like the storm was going to be on our doorstep. Fires would start without reason and I knew something was wrong with me, at first we thought it was Erin but she had been absent when some of the fires had started and then we thought it was Cormac but he wasn't always around as he would go hunting with Kol.
I first thought that maybe I was pregnant again, it would've been a miracle but I had hoped that was the truth, but then I bled. There wasn't any other reason for it, not one that I could see and I had a bad feeling that whatever was coming was going to leave its mark.
"What will happen to the hounds Mother? We cant leave them out in a storm." Erin asks, since been here she had gotten very hands on with the animals. She often helped take care of the Cows, pigs, chicken and the other animals that were kept. She helped a cow birth a calf and she was thoroughly proud of herself.
"They will sleep in the kennels." I tell her. I had reminded her a few times and knew exactly what she was hinting at.
"But there's holes in the roof, they might get wet." She pleads.
"They are hounds they will know to stay away from the dripping." I tell her, I felt sorry for them but I knew how Kol felt about them. He didn't like them and so I was faced with being the bad parent.
"Cant they come in with us? Just for the night?" She asks
"No, they are dirty and they smell." I say.
"But they would behave I would make sure. And they can stay in my room, then if they ruin anything it will be mine." Another plead, she had these big brown eyes and I was certainly bending.
"One night." I firmly say
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The shouts leave her mouth as she hugs me tightly.
"They stay in your room and you clean up after them." The rain had started. "Help your brother take the wood inside and then you can get the hounds." I order her. I pick up the rabbit that I had been cooking and take it back inside the cabin.
I began to start a fire with the wood that Cormac had brought in. Kol would be home soon and if he had been out in this he would be sodden and would need drying off. He would have hopefully fed so I wouldn't have to feed him, I felt faint as it was and I didn't want him drinking from me tonight.
We had discovered recently that he could feed from me, it was sustainable and it certainly kept my jealousy more controlled. If he was drinking from me I knew he couldn't be drinking from another girl. He didn't tend to drink from men, he was afraid people would talk but that didn't make me happy. We had learnt throughout the few years of being turned that if he drained me I would come back hours later. The first time he killed me, he certainly worried. When I woke up (eventually) the room had been torn apart, the walls had dents in and Kol was nowhere to be seen. Nik had gone after him to find him, but Elijah had told me he had ripped a village apart. Nik had covered it up with fire. When he returned he had cried a lot, more than I had ever seen him cry in our life together.
"You were right about the rain." Kol says behind me, I smile.
"I know I was, that's why I told you to hurry up with your business." The matter of fact tone have lingers in the air for a minute. He knows how I feel and he cant change it so he should just let it go.
"It not like I enjoy drinking from them but the last few days you haven't bee able to and I need to feed to maintain control." He says as he moves closer, until I feel him standing behind me.
"Pass me the rabbit please." I say as I add more wood to the fire.
"Holly-"
"Don't." I cut him off. "Just pass me the rabbit and go. Help Erin with the hounds."
I hear him walk away behind me and sigh. He needs to understand where I'm coming from, I don't think I'm being too unfair. He wouldn't be happy if I was feeding from a man, he would stop it before it could even start so why was it ok for him? He acted as though it was a simple thing but I had seen him feed, the sensual atmosphere as they hold one another. Often they straddled him, he said it caused less attention but I had my doubts- He returned home less and less when he was on these feeds.
"Food is ready!" I yell throughout the cabin, rushing of feet come closer and Erin and Cormac quickly rinse their hands in the bowl of water I had placed on the side. Kol follows behind them at a slower pace, he sits at the head of the table with me to his right and Cormac to his left, Erin sits beside her brother.
"Papa." Erin calls out across the table, she only ever calls him that when she wants something. We both know that and for the first time since Kol came home we make eye contact. "Can we keep a hound? One of them is heavy with pups, can we have one?"
"Of course." A gentle smile on his face.
"Thank you Papa!" She squeals and pours herself some more honey water.
"You can have one too Cormac if you wish." Kol says trying to please them both.
"No." Sharp and to the point was the response form our only son.
"Why not?" A shrug.
"Are you going to talk at all?"
No answer.
"What have I done now?"
"Nothing Father. May I be excused Mama?" Cormac asks and I nod.
He was definitely a mothers boy and when I was upset he felt it. He was more of a warlock than the girls and he was much tuned into how others were feeling. He knew Kol was the reason behind my attitude and so he treated him accordingly. Cold. He was by far his fathers son and it was nice to see Kol try to fight a boy who was very much him in every way possible.
The storm continued throughout the night, it was slowly turning into dawn and the storm raged on. Nobody seemed to be leaving their cabins today, afraid of the thunder and lightning, the livestock was fed but trade within the village stopped. I was lying in bed with Kol next to me, neither of us said a word.
"They will be up soon." He said, his voice breaking the uncomfortable silence. I hummed in response.
"Should we prepare food for them?" It had been awhile since he had been home during the mornings so he was unsure of the routine. I shook my head.
"Perhaps we could have some fun?" He whispers in my ear, a shiver runs through my body and a smile on my face.
His hands rub my waist and linger, he begins to kiss down my neck. He continues to nuzzle his face in my shoulder and I let out a light laugh, his arms wrap around me tightly holding me closely to him. My arms go around his neck and I hold him to me, allowing him to do what he does best. He moves his kisses down to my chest and leave a trail down to my belly button. Then he tickles. I squeal in delight and let out a loud laugh which he quickly covers my mouth with his.
"Shush." He whispers against my lips, not that it really does any good.
I reach up and kiss him hard silently telling him to hurry up and get on with it. I knew it wouldn't be long until there was tapping of feet coming to out doorway and no doubt Rebekah would be round soon to entertain them because she was bored. We had a limited amount of time and Kol was oblivious to the rush we had. Now I hadn't forgiven him but that didn't mean I had to punish myself, I was annoyed but maybe I was irritable.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
And out time was over. Groans of annoyance left both of our mouths.
"Ignore it." Kol huskily says in my ear, he was pushing my night dress up whilst trying to pull his breeches down. I push him back with my hands.
"I cant, Erin would've heard that especially when she knows that its 'Bek." I tell him. I crawl out of the bed and pull the dress back down, I pick up my robe that I had thrown to the floor last night and slip into it.
Another round of knocks hit my ears.
"She's eager today, I don't know what her rush is." I say and Kol laughs.
"She likes annoying me." Its my turn to laugh.
As I'm walking to the door the knocks turn to pounding making the hounds howl in curiosity. That would certainly wake the household if not the village up.
"I'm coming!" I shout as I open the door. "What's the ru- Sophie?"
There, in front of me, stood my eldest daughter. l She looked thin and bedraggled, her hair hung limp around her shoulders and her dress was ripped and dirty. Tears were shining in her eyes and her cheeks were hallow. She was paler than usual, a ghostly white, to be honest she looked completely broken. She had nothing with her but a white stallion which was tied to the fence at the bottom of out garden. George was no where to be seen and by the looks of it they had fallen off the beaten track a while ago.
"Mama" She launches herself into my arms. We both fall to the floor and she cries into my shoulder, her body shacks with sobs.
"What if going on?" Kol emerges from the bedroom, shock is written all over his face when his eyes land on her.
"Take Erin and Cormac to Rebekah." I tell him, stroking Sophie's hair as I do. "Warm some water for the bath before you go." He nods before scurrying off to boil some water.
"Sophie, Love, you need to tell me what's wrong?" But she couldn't get the words out, she could hardly breath through the sobs.
So I did what any mother would do. I held her and rocked her until she felt safe enough.
Sophie was still a mess the next day. She had yet to speak a word. I had bathed her and changed her as though she was a babe, I had laced food in front of her and forced her to eat all while she sat staring. Her eyes lifeless.
Kol was concerned to say the least, I had sent him to stay with Nik and the children while I tried to make sense of what was happening to our eldest. She looked as though she had been dragged through a hedge and fallen into a hole.
So we let her be. We let her mourn whatever horrors she was trying to leave behind, we looked after her as we should do and most importantly we got her to trust us.
A week later she was slightly better. She had slept and was slowly starting to talk, it was an improvement.
Kol got her to talk eventually.
"One night we were staying at this inn in the south of England, it was small and dirty but we had been travelling for hours. There were two rooms left so we got them both for George and I. We stayed there a few nights..." She trailed off. "For such a beautiful country, the men are ugly."
That caught my attention, I gripped Kol's hand tightly and she noticed.
"Not like that." She shared a gentle smile. "George, well he was different. He preferred the attention of men rather than women, I didn't have an issue with it but he got caught. His squire was his... preference. They were doing things with one another in the stable, why there I don't know. I thought he was smarter than to get caught but he wasn't. Some of the knights who were visiting for a tourney had heard them and then discovered them. I tried sticking up for them, I tried to protect them but..." A sob broke out of her mouth and I rubbed her shoulder. "They were killed instantly."
"So why do you look like this? You're a mess Sophie." Kol irritably says and I slap his shoulder. Shouting at her isn't going to make her tell us any sooner.
"They kept me prisoner, they thought I was worth something of value. They didn't realise that I wasn't a highborn in their lands. They tried selling me. A man came forward and paid a hefty some for me." Kol was getting angry, his grip tightened on my hand. "Mikael."
"Ill kill him!" Kol shouts.
"Let her finish." I say grabbing his hand and pulling him back to sit down besides me,
"I would rather the devil I know than the devil I don't. Those men." She paused. "They would have done to me what they did to many women before me. Mikael had saved me in a way. He kept me prisoner. He starved me, beat me and dragged me along like some dog that he didn't want anymore" Her body shakes with another sob. "He drained my magic, he compelled me to put it into some rock so he could give it to someone he trusted. He said I was a liability."
"Where is he now?" Kol asks. He was itching for revenge, I could feel it in him. His energy was bursting with anger. I felt deep regret. Why didn't we look for her?
"I don't know, he threw me on a boat and let it sail away." She looks down in her lap.
"Your magic is gone?" I ask.
She nods and replies "I cant feel it any more."
Silence followed soon after, none of us talking. Each of us lost in our own thoughts.
"I came here for a reason." Sophie says breaking the silence.
"What?" We ask at the same time.
"I don't want to be weak, I want to be like you." Sophie is pleading.
"Soph-"
She cuts me off. "Please?" She pleads. "I will do whatever you say but please, don't let me be weak anymore."
"There is no going back." Kol says sharply.
"I know, I wont change my mind." She kneels down in front of Kol. "Please Papa. Save me."
And just like that he forces his wrist to her mouth, blood dripping in. Before I could even intervene he snaps her neck.
Turning her.